Stolen laptop leads to breach of 1,092 Multnomah Co. heath clients’ data
PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - More than 1,000 clients of the Multnomah County Health Center may have had their personal information and records breached in April, the county health department announced Friday.
According to health officials, the department has begun notifying the 1,092 clients that their names, medical record numbers, Medicaid IDs, dates of birth, gender, race, ethnicity, clinic and dates of service may have been accessed by a former employee who refused to return a county-issued computer.
Social Security numbers and drivers’ license numbers were part of the data accessed, officials said. Clients who were affected by the data breach will receive a letter explaining how to enroll in a free identity theft protection program offered by the county.
No other Multnomah County clients or information systems were impacted.
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On March 4, a Community Health Center staff member was dismissed from employment and then failed to return their county laptop as required, according to officials. The former employee’s network account, email, and clinical systems access to medical records system had all been disabled, but on April 24, one of county’s antimalware systems raised an alert about suspicious activity on the computer.
The county IT team determined the computer had allowed the employee to log in to the computer using their previous account, and learned that two spreadsheets containing protected health information remained saved on the laptop.
The IT team sent a remote command to securely erase the laptop’s contents if it connects to the internet again. Moving forward, the team is also adding new technology to county systems to prevent any future unauthorized access, officials said.
The county also filed a police report with the Portland Police Bureau (case number 24-107-327) after the former employee ignored repeated demands for the laptop to be returned.
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