Big Breach at Cord Blood Registry

The Cord Blood Registry, which stores more than 350,000 cord blood collections for individuals and their families, has notified about 300,000 individuals of a breach of their protected health information.


The Cord Blood Registry, which stores more than 350,000 cord blood collections for individuals and their families, has notified about 300,000 individuals of a breach of their protected health information.

Backup tapes were stolen from an employee's car on Dec. 13. Notifications started on Feb. 14 but the registry did not post information about the breach on its Web site. PHIprivacy.net learned of the breach weeks later and published a story on March 3.

Clinical data was not breached, but personal demographic and financial information was exposed. "The tapes may have contained your name, Social Security number, driver's license number, credit card information and/or credit card expiration date," according to the notification letter. "Because a computer and other property also were stolen at the same time from a locked vehicle, we do not believe these tapes were the target of the theft."

There is no indication that personal information has been accessed or misused, according to the registry. It is offering a year of paid credit protection services from Experian.

--Joseph Goedert

 

More for you

Loading data for hdm_tax_topic #reducing-cost...