If you've ever visited a Dentist, Tax Professional, Lawyer, Chiropractor, or Mortgage Broker, your personal information may be at risk. In six separate documented breaches, professionals in Maryland and Virginia have exposed the personal client and patient information of more than 17,000 Washington DC-area residents, including more than 3,500 social security numbers over public wireless networks or “Hot Spots.” Liberty Coalition Privacy Director Aaron Titus teamed up with WJLA ABC 7 "On Your Side" to expose this systemic problem. http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0408/514563.html

“This is an endemic problem among independent professionals. There’s an insecure wireless network in almost every office park,” says Titus, “This trend is predictable if regrettable, because independent practitioners have small staffs and often outsource IT functions to people of varying skill. When they outsource it to a non-professional, it can have a devastating effect on patient and client privacy.”

Titus estimates that as many as 10% of independent professionals inadvertently expose client and patient personal information on Hot Spots. For example, dentist Dr. Michell Burdine-Merai’s office in Oxon Hill, Maryland exposed private information about 9,911 patients, former patients, and their families to the public through an unsecured public wireless network, including roughly 2,569 social security numbers. The information also included appointments, dental treatments, and phone numbers.

In Alexandria, Virginia, the office of Martha Yungk, EA accidentally exposed the private information of 7,003 of her clients, former clients and their families on a public wireless network after an IT professional replaced a broken router with a wireless router, without her permission. The information includes more than 700 social security numbers, 400 addresses and phone numbers, and detailed tax information for 2,796 people. Letters to the IRS about criminal tax actions, state tax information, and notes about health and alimony were among the more than 300 sensitive documents exposed on the hot spot. The wireless network was available to any member of the public with a laptop, who came within 150 feet of the office (including the parking lot).

Maryland chiropractor Prime Care exposed private information about 56 patients over its public wireless network. Most of the individuals affected are patients of Dr. Steven Boesche, though Dr. Boesche was not responsible for the posting. The Hot Spot exposed 29 files with sensitive patient information, including patient account numbers, blood pressure, date of accident, diagnoses, examination results, patient history, pulse, prognosis, and treatments.

Individuals affected by this exposure should immediately visit www.ssnbreach.org and search for their names, to confirm what types of personal information were exposed.

About SSNBreach.org

Sponsored by the Washington, DC non-profit Liberty Coalition, SSNBreach.org provides hundreds of thousands of free personalized Identity Exposure Reports™ as a public service.
Each Identity Exposure Report (IXR) documents what types of personal information were exposed (such as Social Security Numbers, Birth Dates, Addresses, etc.), without revealing them. Each IXR also details the situation surrounding each exposure, and contact information of those responsible for the breach. Armed with this information, victims can further investigate, take action, or correct harm.