Breach affects 12,900 patients at Stanford hospital

A stolen laptop was the cause of a breach affecting 12,900 patients at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

A password-protected, but outdated and damaged laptop containing some medical information on pediatric patients—but no Social Security numbers or financial information—was stolen from a secured, badge-access controlled area of the hospital, according to a June 13 hospital notice and press release. The laptop went missing between May 2 and May 8; an employee first reported the incident on May 8.

Packard Children security and law enforcement launched an investigation following the incident, but they did not recover the laptop. However, “to date, there is no evidence that any pediatric patient data has been accessed by an unauthorized person or otherwise compromised,” according to the hospital.

This is not the first time Stanford has suffered a breach; multiple incidents occurred in 2011 and 2012 and in January earlier this year about 57,000 patients were notified of an incident that involved the theft of a laptop containing patients’ names, birth dates and other clinical information.