Posted by: NetLib on Friday, August 26, 2011
Originally published at: thenorthwestern.com
Copyright: 2011 www.thenorthwestern.com

Computer breach exposes personal records of Living Health Clinic patients

The names and other confidential information of about 3,000 clients of the Living Healthy Clinic were exposed as a result of a computer security breach In July.

The clinic, operated by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh College of Nursing provides health services for uninsured Winnebago County residents.

The university on Friday said an investigation determined that there had been a security breach, but there was no indication of any attempt to download information from the computer. Officials learned of the security breach when university technology staff identified evidence of a computer virus on a desktop computer.

Information contained in the exposed records included names, addresses and Social Security numbers, as well as the health records of a smaller number of people.

The university plans to contact the people whose records were affected by mail to inform them about the incident, the investigation and resources that are available to protect personal information and prevent identity theft.

The investigators were not able to identify who gained unauthorized access to the computer, but believe it was not a targeted attack because the same virus has been found in unrelated computers in other areas of the state.