http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/va-remains-one-top-privacy-offenders
By Erin McCann
Associate Editor
Health IT News
October 14, 2013
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs continues to be one of the biggest
offenders of HIPAA privacy and security rules and has reported egregious
breaches in recent years, affecting millions of veterans and active
service members.
From 2010 through May 2013, VA department employees or contractors were
responsible for 14,215 privacy breaches affecting more than 101,000
veterans across 167 VA facilities, including incidences of identity theft,
stealing veteran prescriptions, Facebook posts concerning veterans' body
parts, and failing to encrypt data, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
investigation revealed.
Recent VA privacy and security violations prompted a June 2013 hearing on
Capitol Hill regarding the topic of protecting veterans' private
information. "VA places the highest priority in safeguarding Veterans’ and
employees’ personal information," Stephen W. Warren, acting assistant
secretary at the Office of Information and Technology at VA, told
lawmakers at the hearing.
However, some say the agency doesn't appear to have the privacy track
record to support those comments.
[...]
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