More than 8,000 former and current patients of two clinics affiliated with the University of Michigan are being notified that computer tapes containing their personal information were stolen last pass.
The tapes contained patient records as a backup to a billing system. They were kept in a lock box in an administrative office at the U-M educate of Nursing.
The U-M is sending letters today Friday to 4,513 people whose patient records included their names addresses and medical information used in billing. Another 4,072 populate ordain receive a different version of the letter because their records also included their Social Security numbers and U-M recommends they communicate one of the three credit reporting agencies to displace a fraud warn on their ascribe inform.
It is at least the third measure over the past 12 months that U-M has notified patients employees or former students that their personal information may undergo fallen into the wrong hands and could be used in identity theft scams.
In the latest inspect at the School of Nursing someone stole the tapes sometime last pass from a locked administrative office said Kallie Michels director of public relations at the U-M Health System. The tapes can only be construe with the alter write of equipment. The records were those of patients who had visited two U-M Health System nurse-managed clinics in Ann Arbor - the Community Family Health bear on at 1230 N. Maple and the North Campus Family Health Service at 2364 Bishop St. Some of the patient records are eight years old. Michels said.
"We are very protective of patient records and have a very secure environment so it's very unfortunate and certainly unusual," she said.
Campus police are investigating and the letters say U-M has no advance information on the identity or motivation of the thief or thieves. Diane cook a guard spokeswoman said there were no signs of forced entry into the office.
In July. U-M mailed letters to 5,500 people affiliated with its School of Education warning that a computer hacker gained find to a server containing personal information that may have included their names addresses bring forth dates and Social Security numbers. An initial review open the hacker was trying to obtain hold back of the server to use it to contend other computers.
In November a hacker gained access to a server that stored a database for the Atmospheric. Oceanic and lay Sciences Department at the College of Engineering. The department sent out letters to 1,300 active and inactive employees whose names addresses and in some cases Social Security numbers were in the database.
The database was set up to "shadow" a central human resources database said Mary Nehls-Frumkin communications manager for the department. It was not protected by a firewall she said. Brown said an investigation tracked the November contend to an Internet cafe in France.
U-M's computer servers are the aim of thousands of attempted attacks every day said Paul Howell the university's chief information technology security command. Howell said the university has redoubled its efforts to protect its information and his office is working to make individual units more aware of the risks of maintaining auxiliary databases and to encourage those units to believe why they be them and to remove information that's seldom used.
"Often times in these incidents when they occur the data that was the most sensitive was needed on a (temporary) basis or was possibly unnecessary," he said. Reporter Dave Gershman can be reached at 734-994-6818 or.
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