Government

NIH says Social Security data on stolen laptop

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 28, 2008

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A laptop computer stolen from the trunk of a researcher working for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute actually did contain Social Security numbers of participants in a cardiac study, according to a spokeswoman for the NHLBI, part of the National Institutes of Health. An initial examination did not turn up any Social Security data, said NHLBI spokeswoman Susan Dambrauskas. However, a subsequent scan of the 36,000 files on the computer located an unidentified file containing a list of 1,281 study participants, including their Social Security numbers, said Dambrauskas.

The NIH sent letters on April 9 to participants whose names were in the unidentified file, said Dambrauskas. It apologized for the mishap and offered free credit services to monitor the participants' credit reports, she said. The NIH also will provide up to $20,000 of identity theft coverage for each of the those patients. The laptop, stolen on Feb. 23, contained unencrypted information on 3,078 participants in a cardiac study conducted between 2001 and 2007. The computer had not been recovered as of press time in mid-April.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/04/28/gvbf0428.htm.

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