Stolen laptop contained information on VNA patients

Waterford — About 12,000 current and former patients of the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut will be receiving letters notifying them of a possible security breach of agency data.
Mary Lenzini, VNA president, said Thursday that the letters are being sent after a laptop computer used by one of the visiting nurses was stolen from her car. The laptop, stolen on Sept. 30, had been in the nurse’s locked car that was parked in the driveway of her Waterford home, Lenzini said. The theft was reported to police. The laptop has not been recovered.
Nurses use the laptops to record all patient information, including names, addresses, diagnoses and types of care provided. All the information is encrypted, and access to the data is password protected, Lenzini said.  Thus far there has been no indication that any patient data has been illegally accessed, she added.
All those notified of the breach have been provided a list of credit monitoring and identity theft services and information on steps they should take to protect themselves. VNA also published a legal advertisement in Thursday’s edition of The Day about the breach and notified the state Attorney General’s Office.
Lenzini said the agency is in the midst of upgrading security on all its computer equipment.