YIKES

Thousands of Patients Treated by FDNY EMS Warned of Possible Data Breach

An external hard drive containing the personal information of more than 10,000 people was lost.

The New York City Fire Department has notified over 10,000 people previously treated or transported by its ambulance services that their personal information may have been compromised after an employee lost a hard drive that stored the information. According to FDNY, the employee uploaded the information onto their personal hard drive, which was later reported as missing in March. A total of 10,253 patients, 235 of whom are minors, were notified by mail this week of the possible breach, with all of them having been treated and or transported by EMS between 2011 and 2018. Nearly 3,000 of the people affected will receive credit monitoring because their social security numbers were impacted, the FDNY said in a statement. FDNY said there is no evidence that any of the information stored on the personal device has been accessed, but the department is treating the incident as if the information may have been seen by an unauthorized person. The employee, who was authorized to see the records, faces disciplinary action pending an internal investigation.