More uncrypted laptops, this time with health information on them. How many more do Gov.ie need before they put laws in place to require encryption, immediate notification, etc?
Irish Examiner: FIVE laptops have been stolen from the Health Service Executive since the beginning of this year, the Irish Examiner has learned.
Confidential details of patients with lung disease, patients’ surgery, their diagnoses, treatment and other personal details were contained on some of the stolen laptops.
None of the five laptops were encrypted.
Health chiefs are to begin notifying patients and clients over the coming days about missing data on two of the laptops, more than two months after they were stolen. These two laptops were taken together in July this year in a HSE office in Mullingar.
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The saddest part is that I can nearly guarantee that each of those computers had encryption software installed, but unused. It’s been standard software from all the big makers for a number of years. It’s even hard to buy a USB stick nowadays without included encryption software. And, honestly, even if it takes 5 seconds longer to log in, it’s still not any harder than logging in…
On the other hand, our two computers at home, running OS X (which has built-in “File Vault” encryption) are unencrypted. There’s nothing sensitive on them, of course. All banking, etc., is in the cloud.