Officials at Heyman HospiceCare at Floyd in Rome, Ga., last week began alerting patients about a data breach involving a stolen laptop. On Jan. 4, facility officials were made aware that a password-protected laptop went missing from an employee's car earlier that day. In an announcement, officials say that the information on the laptop was not encrypted, but is "protected by additional security software that would make it difficult for the average person to access any information."
Heyman HospiceCare has not divulged how the number of potential patients impacted, but did say that the laptop contained information on patients treated between July 1, 2006 through Jan. 3, 2013. The facility is offering eligible individuals a free credit monitoring for a year, and said that it will implement "a more disciplined approach to its encryption for all laptop computers and re-educating staff on policies and procedures for securing such mobile devices." Announcement