Lifespan Corporation recently suffered a possible data breach due to stolen laptop. The device belongs to Lifespan employee. An individual broke into employee’s car and stole laptop along with other items. The employee immediately reported the incident to law enforcement & Lifespan.
As per the website, “Lifespan, Rhode Island’s first health system, was founded in 1994 by Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. A comprehensive, integrated, academic health system affiliated with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Lifespan’s present partners also include Rhode Island Hospital’s paediatric division, Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Bradley Hospital; Newport Hospital; and Gateway Healthcare. “
To reduce unauthorized access to the laptop, Rhode Island health organization changed the login credentials for accessing Lifespan system information. Facility found out the stolen MacBook was not encrypted. Password protection was also not present on the system.
The laptop included information of 20,431 patients. Affected information included emails containing patient names, medical record numbers, and demographic information. Lifespan has started notifying the affected patients. Call centre is also established to answer the queries.
Facility mentioned that there is no suggestion or information of data misuse. Also, patient medical records or Social Security numbers were not included in the breach.
Facility is retraining the employees to avoid such incidents in future.
“Lifespan is committed to protecting the security and confidentiality of our patients’ information, and we deeply regret this incident occurred.”
How can you protect data when the laptop is stolen?
Encryption
Encryption can play a major role in securing your data in case of stolen laptop.
Authentication
Biometrics and two-factor authentication (2FA) increases the security level of your device.
Email security
Your email contains a lot of sensitive information. Emails are auto-opened in the system due to stored password. Remember password or use alternative methods to open email accounts.
Find My Device
Activate Find My Device software on your laptop. It will help you to track the laptop.
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Alertsec’s cloud-based information security service provides an easy and convenient way to protect information on your organization’s laptops and computers.
