Conn. A.G. Investigates Smaller Breach

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has announced his office is investigating a breach affecting 1,000 individuals stemming from the theft of an unencrypted laptop at Yale Medical School.

In a statement, the attorney general said Yale is cooperating in the investigation, which is designed to "identify the cause of the breach and assure ongoing protections for patients."

Officials at Yale say the computer, stolen July 28 from the office of a data analyst at the school of medicine, contained health information, but no Social Security, financial or insurance numbers. So far, there is no evidence that any of the information on the computer has been misused, the officials say.

"In addition to affirming all our existing measures to protect patient privacy, we are moving to introduce immediately several security upgrades," says Robert Alpern, M.D., dean of the school of medicine.

As required under the HITECH Act breach notification rule, the school is notifying those affected.

In July, Blumenthal's office reached a settlement with insurer Health Net over a breach in 2009 that involved the loss of a portable disk drive holding records for more than 1.5 million consumers, including 500,000 in Connecticut. The insurer agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and take corrective action to improve security.

Meanwhile, the attorney general's office also is investigating a breach at insurer Wellpoint Inc. that is now estimated to have affected about 480,000 individuals, including some in Connecticut. That case involved a website glitch that exposed patient data.