The Fire Department notified last week more than 10,000 patients whom the FDNY EMS had previously treated of transported that their personal information may have been compromised by the loss of an agency employee’s personal external hard drive last March.
The employee, who was authorized to access the records, had uploaded the information onto the personal external device, which was reported missing, according to the FDNY.
Although there is no evidence to date that any of the information stored on the personal device has been accessed, the Fire Department is treating the incident as if the information may have been seen by an unauthorized person. FDNY has notified the impacted patients.
Additionally, 3,000 patients whose social security numbers may have been compromised are being offered free credit monitoring.
The 10,253 patients who were notified by mail of the data breach were all treated and or transported by EMS during the period from 2011 to 2018. The FDNY is following the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 guidelines in notifying all people whose information may have been compromised.
Patients can call (877) 213-1732 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Friday if they have any questions about the breach or if they think their personal information was included in the breach.
This story first appeared on QNS.com, one of our sister publications.
