[ISN] Police probe breach of NHS smartcard security as e-records launched in London

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/11/16/239006/police-probe-breach-of-nhs-smartcard-security-as-e-records-launched-in.htm

By Tony Collins
ComputerWeekly.com
16 Nov 2009

An NHS trust at the forefront of work on the 12.7bn NHS IT scheme has 
called in police after a breach of smartcard security compromised the 
confidentiality of hundreds of electronic records.

Patients in Hull have expressed their dismay that an unauthorised NHS 
employee has accessed their confidential records; and the local primary 
care trust, NHS Hull, says it is "shocked" at the breach of security by 
a member of staff who has since left.

Details of the breach emerged as health officials in London were, in an 
unrelated event, telling journalists about the start of a roll-out of 
electronic records across London, as part of the National Programme for 
IT [NPfIT].

The roll-out is part of plans by the Department of Health to create for 
50 million people in England an electronic "summary" medical record on a 
central database run by BT. 

But doctors say that the breach of security at NHS Hull shows that an 
insider with a smartcard can access confidential electronic records 
without authorisation, if the person is determined to do so. 

[...]


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