Oregon backup tape incident results in firing and policy changes

I blogged earlier this month about the theft of some computer backup tapes from a vehicle owned by an employee of Providence Home Services, a division of Providence Health System (The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Correction: Information stolen from Providence Health System employee used fraudulently).

Here's a bit of an update: The company is reported by Computerworld to have carried out a thorough investigation of the incident. As a result, one employee has been fired and three have resigned. The company has also revised its security and backup policies so that data is not taken to employees' homes for offsite storage and data is routinely encrypted. From all appearances, the company has been very open about the incident and has issued a number of press releases on its website. This is critical, as trust is essential in the healthcare sector.

Technorati tags: Privacy :: Security :: Identity Theft :: Incident