Ore. clinic reports data breach

Dunes Family Health Care, a family-medicine clinic in Reedsport, Ore., notified patients of a data breach resulting from the apparent theft of a hard drive containing the clinic's backup electronic files.

The organization that maintains Dunes Family's backup files discovered on March 11 that the hard drive had gone missing from the locked building in which it was kept, according to a statement (PDF) posted on the clinic's website. Data stored on the drive included patients' names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers as well as clinical information. The incident was reported to local police, who are investigating with the help of the Oregon state crime lab, according to the statement.

"We are committed to safeguarding our patients' sensitive personal information and have taken immediate steps to fortify the measures protecting our backup files," clinic President Dr. Dale Harris said in the statement. "Those files are now being stored under increased physical security and are encrypted."

Fraud-protection services are available for current and former patients, according to the statement.