Security Breach: Nearly 50,000 Patient Records Compromised

According to news sources, patient information from nearly 50,000 patients of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center was jeopardized in a data security breach announced on April 11, 2008. The breach included names, phone numbers, addresses and social security numbers. The Wall Street Journal reported on its health care blog that postal officials searching an identity theft ring in Atlanta have identified 221 documents which came from the hospital.

According to a spokesperson hospital officials are in the process of contacting thousands of patients and New York Presbyterian is offering affected patients credit monitoring services. IdentityTruth is reaching out to hospital patients to provide them the option of comprehensive identity theft prevention coverage at a discounted rate, since credit monitoring alone does not prevent identity theft. IdentityTruth’s technology helps to predict possible fraud and delivers ongoing alerts about any changes to the individual’s credit and identity profile. IdentityTruth’s comprehensive service is especially important to protect consumers in cases such as this, where social security numbers were compromised.

Data Breaches a Growing Problem for Consumers

The New York Presbyterian Hospital breach is part of a growing wave of data breaches which are putting consumers at risk for identity theft. In the case of the Presbyterian Hospital case news reports are highlighting a possible link to an organized identity theft ring. Incidents such as these highlight a disturbing truth for consumers: even if you are careful, you are not safe since businesses, health care organizations and government agencies which hold your sensitive data are increasingly at risk of data breaches.

IdentityTruth invites consumers to learn more by viewing the identity theft timeline—which shows that identity theft starts long before something shows up on your credit report.