No Laughing Matter
Two car salesmen, a politician and a hospital staffer walk into a bank. Sounds like the start of a lame stand-up act, but for some Virginia residents, there's no punch-line. According to The Virginian-Pilot, police recently busted six people, including a hospital registrar, for identity theft after they allegedly used stolen information to pocket money from the Navy Federal Credit Union.
The emergency room registrar pleaded guilty to stealing information from patients' medical records, which was then used to acquire $61,000 in car loans. The cars didn't exist; instead, the money padded wallets.
The hospital's monitoring program captured the registrar's suspicious activity, albeit after 6 months, as records showed that the registrar was frequently viewing private information without making any updates. Two points for security measures.
Hospital officials also responded to the breach by offering free credit monitoring to any patients whose identities were compromised. It may do little to ease the creepy invasion of privacy, but it's a pretty good response. As for the politician's-OK, neighborhood association leader's-victims, where will they sign up for reparations? Will the association shell out the cash for credit monitoring? If not, the joke might just be on them.