April 14, 2005

Stolen computers threaten patient identities

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

San Jose police continue to investigate a March 28 burglary at San Jose Medical Group that threatens the identities of up to 185,000 people.

Two Dell Pentium 4 computers and a flat-screen monitor, valued at $3,000 were stored behind locked doors at the medical group’s administrative offices on Race Street. They contained the names, addresses, confidential medical information, and Social Security numbers of former and current patents. By the sheer number of people affected, it has been ranked as one of the largest single identity theft cases in the country.

Letters, along with copies of the police report have since been mailed to patients in accordance with SB1386, the Security Breech Information Act of California, which requires organizations to make reasonable efforts to contact individuals affected by data theft, including over 200 physicians serving nearly 60,000 patients.

The letter tells patients that the three major credit card bureaus have been notified and while there is “no indication any confidential information has been misused or disclosed,” it recommends that steps be taken to prevent identity theft by contacting one of the credit bureaus and placing a fraud alert on accounts. The others will then be notified and all three will send credit reports directly to patients for review within 90 days.

Earlier this year, the medical group had started encrypting patient and financial information because of medical regulations, identity theft reports, and security regulations. Although some of the data had been encrypted, the process had not been completed before the computers were stolen.

Since the burglary, increased security has been implemented, along with the installation of additional surveillance cameras.

“One of our top priorities is the protection of your personal information,” adds Wallerstein. “This is something that we take very seriously.”

For more information, call (800) 281-6575 or log on to www.sanjosemed.com.

Helpful information about identity theft and fraud protection