Hard Drives in Copy or Fax Machines are a HIPAA Risk

While everyone is worried about stolen laptops or unauthorized access to computer files, who ever thought the hard drive in copying and fax machines could be a potential HIPAA violation?

 

Copy machines, fax machines and scanners now contain hard drives — like computer hard drives — that store images of all the pages of information that ever ran through the machines, according to the Baudino Law Group.

 

The Des Moines, Iowa, law firm said after a copy machine was disposed by a New York-based managed care plan, the plan had to notify three state agencies, federal authorities and more than 400,000 members of a breach of protected health information under HIPAA.

 

When disposed, repaired or exchanged, patient information on these machines' hard drives needs to be scrubbed by a vendor, according to a report by CBS News. The Baudino Law Group also suggests encrypting the devices or destroying the hard drive before disposal.


View the CBS News report.


Learn more about Baudino Law Group.

 

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