Greensboro Gynecology: An absence of information
This story about the computer tape stolen from a member of the staff of Greensboro Gynecology Associates is an interesting one. Police say that 47,000 people have been notified that their personal information may have been on the tape.
Note that police are saying that. The medical practice isn't saying much of anything.
Virtually all of our information has come from police and patients. The practice sent a letter to the 47,000 people, but the patients said that it didn't have much detail. A computer expert cast doubt on the veracity of a statement in the letter that the stolen data would be difficult to access.
Greensboro Gynecology hasn't talked with us or other media, best I can tell. Two e-mail responses to questions from reporter Ryan Seals haven't contained much information.
Patients, though, have talked with us. Many of them are angry and asking questions, the same ones we ask: The tape and laptop were was stolen after thieves broke jimmied a window in the employee's car, but the employee didn't notice the theft until the next day? The theft occurred on a Thursday night, but not reported to police until the following Wednesday? Then a letter wasn't sent to patients until at least after June 16? The data was not encrypted?
That's some of the anger. Others want information: What information about me is at risk? How do I protect myself? What companies do I need to contact to safeguard my identity?
Greensboro Gynecology is certainly not a public entity in the government/taxpayer-supported sense so the usual avenues to information aren't there. But the company sure is public when 47,000 people are possibly exposed. As one reader said to me: They have no clue what "transparency" means either. They don't know how to do damage control. They handled it wrong; a phone number or web video would have been a good start. If you call the office now, they have no one to talk to you.
There's a lesson there.
Comments (4)
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To not at least let patients know what kind of information was on the tape, so that they can take appropriate actions to protect themselves is to simply add the potential for additional injury to an already bad situation. Very poor decision-making.
Time to call Rick Amme.
http://www.amme.com/
Posted on July 18, 2008 12:41 PM
Do you think it's necessary to call in a "crisis management" firm when Amme's Web site has an easy to understand 10-point to-do list to handle such crises? (No. 1: Take care of victims or perceived victims (the victim is where the story is)).
Posted on July 18, 2008 1:53 PM
A couple of comments: 47,000 people! That's about 25% of the women in Guilford County. Can that be?
If the practice sent out letters to announce the theft, 47,000 stamps at $.42 ea. is $17,640. Pretty Expensive. (Maybe someone from the USPS took the tape.)
I know what was on the tape. It was "01010100010101001110100110011011100110100111001110011000101011110010100101000101001010110110101100010101000100010111010100101010001010100111010011001101110011010011100111001100010101111001010010100010100101011011010110001010100010001011101010" or some such. Pray tell how anyone would know what this means? I think that computer expert was wrong.
Posted on July 18, 2008 8:08 PM
A couple of comments: 47,000 people! That's about 25% of the women in Guilford County. Can that be?
If the practice sent out letters to announce the theft, 47,000 stamps at $.42 ea. is $17,640. Pretty Expensive. (Maybe someone from the USPS took the tape.)
I know what was on the tape. It was "01010100010101001110100110011011100110100111001110011000101011110010100101000101001010110110101100010101000100010111010100101010001010100111010011001101110011010011100111001100010101111001010010100010100101011011010110001010100010001011101010" or some such. Pray tell how anyone would know what this means? I think that computer expert was wrong.
Posted on July 18, 2008 8:08 PM