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Feds Fine New Haven Over Health Data Breach

Data Security
Werner Moser
/
Pixabay
Health data security was compromised by a city employee.

The City of New Haven, Connecticut will pay over $200,000 to the federal government after a data breach that compromised the personal information of hundreds of residents with sexually transmitted diseases.

The city made that agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights.

The breach happened in 2016 when a former New Haven Health Department employee downloaded computer files onto a personal thumb drive, then erased the private records of at least 587 adults and minors with STDs.

Mayor Justin Elicker said he welcomes the settlement and is “grateful” that the city was fined only a “fraction” of what it could have. The state criminally charged the ex-employee, who received a four-year prison sentence.