Home healthcare provider robbed of unencrypted laptop

A laptop belonging to United HomeCare Services, a nonprofit that aids frail and elderly Floridians, was stolen from the front seat of a locked car. The laptop user, a billing manager, had permission to take the computer home.  The manager notified the organization the next day. Affected clients were notified by letter the next month.

“That laptop had password protection but no encryption as it was one of the last remaining laptops scheduled to be updated to add encryption.”

Staff had to rely on “a roaming profile” to ascertain what data had been stored on the machine.

“Data on clients going back to 2002 were on the device,” including name, social security number, date of birth, home address, service dates, health plan numbers, and/or diagnosis.