Cabarrus County Data Breach

Who Breached: Cabarrus County
Number Affected: 28,000
Information breached: Social Security Numbers
How: laptop loss

Officials in Cabarrus County, North Carolina have notified 28,000 people that their personal data has been breached.

A laptop went missing from the Cabarrus County Emergency Medical Services on October 28th when it was accidentally left on an ambulance’s back bumper. The laptop contained personal data, including Social Security numbers, for 28,000 people whom the EMS had cared for in the past 4 years. The laptop also included medical information on 58 recent patients.

Information stored on the computer is protected by double passwords, so it is unlikely that if found, someone would be able to access the patient records. However, it is possible that information on the computer could be breached by an individual who has highly developed computer programming skills.

The Attorney General’s Office and the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion security) have been notified of this potential security breach.

Those affected have been notified by letter and a call center has been set up. New software will also be purchased to avoid storing any personal information on the computer’s hard drive.

You can read more from the Cabarrus County announcement here.

Via breach blog, Charlotte.com Tags: data breach, cabarrus county, cabarrus county data breach, identity theft, security