Providence confirms theft of backup tape containing records of 365,000 patients

Portland-based Providence Home Systems had a backup tape containing records of 365,000 patients stolen from an employee’s car. In addition to patient names, the tape contained social security numbers, addresses and other medical information. In what was regular procedure, backup tapes were taken home nightly for remote storage.

The theft was reported by the employee on December 31st 2005. Current and former patients, from mainly Oregon and Washington, are on the tape. In addition, information about present and past employees of Providence Home Systems is contained was also contained on the tape.

Some companies routinely have their network administrators or even secretaries take home the backup tape. This ensures that data will be available if a disaster strikes the main site. The company is looking at changing this procedure and according to a press release has, "made changes to further secure the data".

Providence Home Systems has set up a hotline phone number for people to call. While the company doesn’t say in their press release if the data was encrypted, they do say that the thief would need, "specialized computer skills to access the data". However, it’s worthy to note that enterprise tape drives and backup software are fairly standardized.