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Data on over 18K COVID-19 patients accidentally leaked online

Personal data of all Welsh COVID-19 patients has been leaked

COVID-19 patients

Data on over 18K COVID-19 patients accidentally leaked online. Source: pixabay.com

Public Health Wales has accidentally left the personal data of 18,105 COVID-19 patients exposed on a public server, ComputerWeekly.com reports.

According to the report, the data remained viewable for just under 24 hours, during which time it was viewed 56 times.

The exposed data consisted of initials, birth dates, location, and gender.

The organization has conducted a risk assessment and concluded that the possibility of anybody could be identified was low.

Nevertheless, for 1,926 people living in care homes or other similar settings, the information also included the name of that setting, putting them at slightly higher elevated risk.

We take our obligations to protect people’s data extremely seriously and I am sorry that on this occasion we failed. I would like to reassure the public that we have in place very clear processes and policies on data protection
Tracey Cooper, PHW chief executive

We’ve reported that the number of cyberattacks on healthcare systems will be rising since the hospitals are shifting to digitalization and remote patient care.

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