Breach: Unencrypted laptop stolen from hospital employee's car

Northwestern Memorial HealthCare is notifying 2,800 patients of a data breach after a laptop containing the data was stolen from an employee's car.

The Chicago-area organization learned of the breach on Oct. 21. The password-protected, unencrypted laptop may have contained patients’ names, addresses, dates of birth, health insurance information, billing codes, date of services, physician’s name, medical record numbers, diagnosis, treatment information, and, in some limited instances, Social Security numbers. The employee immediately contacted law enforcement who began an investigation and the organization began an internal investigation, including hiring an outside expert forensics firm to recreate the data on the laptop. Patients’ credit card and bank account information were not on the laptop.