SAUSALITO -- Bay Area Pain Medical Associates on Friday publicly warned of the theft of computers that contained the names of nearly 2,800 patients.
Three desktop computers were among the "many items" stolen during a break-in at the medical offices on May 19, according to an open letter from the clinic. Sausalito police were notified when the burglary was discovered the next day.
"Although all medical records were encrypted and inaccessible, we believe one Excel spreadsheet containing approximately 2,780 patient names and years of service may have been available," the announcement said.
The only data in that spreadsheet were patients' first and last names and their years as patients at the practice, it said. Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial information, contact information and medical conditions weren't listed.
The clinic said "there does not appear to be any risk for identity theft."
However, security on that spreadsheet has been changed because of the incident, and the clinic is offering the affected patients fraud-protection monitoring by AllClearID. The practice also is recommending patients to call the three main credit agencies and file a 90-day fraud alert.
and advising them to call the major credit-reporting agencies to
Though there does not appear to be any risk for identity theft, any patient can call the three major credit agencies --Â Equifax (800-525-6285), Experian (888-397-3742) and TransUnion (800-680-7289) -- and place a 90-day fraud alert.
