The Manhattan District Attorney has handed down eight indictments, including one for an employee of Bronx, N.Y.-based Montefiore Medical Center, for stealing and using patients' personal identifying information to make thousands of dollars in purchases.
Although the information of 12,517 patients was stolen between January and June 2013, Montefiore did not learn of the incident until May 15 when it was informed by law enforcement officials, according to a Crain's New York Business report.
"In case after case, we've seen how theft by a single company insider, who is often working with identity thieves on the outside, can rapidly victimize a business and thousands of its customers," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement. "Motivated by greed, profit, and a complete disregard for their victims, identity thieves often feed stolen information to larger criminal operations, which then go on to defraud additional businesses and victims. In this case, a hospital employee privy to confidential patient records allegedly sold financial information for as little $3 per record."
Montefiore fired the employee following the breach and said in a notification that it has expanded both its technology monitoring capabilities and employee training on safeguarding and accessing patient records to further bolster its privacy safeguards.