Hackers stole UW medical records, Web site reports

Herald staff

SEATTLE — Information on thousands of patients at University of Washington’s medical center, including their Social Security numbers and medical procedures, was obtained in a computer break-in from overseas, a Web site on computer security reported Thursday.

The university confirmed that its computers had been penetrated earlier this year and said it was trying to determine what records had been compromised. It said the security breach might have involved databases maintained by researchers rather than those used in patient care.

The investigation began after SecurityFocus.com reported receiving a set of the medical center’s records from someone identifying himself as Kane, a 25-year-old Dutch man.

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The site’s editorial director, Kevin Poulsen, said the records included the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of more than 4,000 cardiology patients, along with their medical procedures.

A second file contained similar information on 700 physical rehabilitation patients, he said, and a third chronicled every admission, discharge and transfer over a five-month period.

Poulsen said Kane told him he had hacked into the medical center to "expose its vulnerability," not to exploit patients.

A university spokesman, Tom Martin, said a hacker entered the pathology department’s computer system in June and had access until he was shut out in early July. The hacker resurfaced on Aug. 17, Martin said, and was blocked again on Sept. 1. Computer logs traced the intruder to the Netherlands.

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