MA Hospital: Contractor Loses Data For 800K People

WEYMOUTH, Mass. — South Shore Hospital says a data management company it had hired to destroy obsolete back up computer files containing personal, health and financial information may have lost the data.

The hospital says in a statement posted on its website Monday that the files could contain personally identifiable information for about 800,000 people, including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

The hospital says bank account information and credit card numbers for a very small group also may have been on the files.

The loss affects patients, employees, physicians, volunteers, donors and business partners.

The hospital says it has no evidence that the lost information has been accessed.

Officials had hired the company to destroy the files because they were in a format the hospital no longer uses.