Gibson Insurance Agency

On July 28, 2016, an employee’s laptop computer was stolen from her car. The laptop may have contained the demographic and health insurance information of approximately 7,242 individuals. The employee reported the theft to local law enforcement, and the covered entity (CE), Gibson Insurance Agency, Inc., provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. Following the incident, the CE investigated the breach, sanctioned the employee involved, implemented policies regarding the use of portable workstations outside the office, and retrained employees. The CE improved safeguards by encrypting all computers, deploying a security management system to all mobile devices, mandating the use of complex passwords, and instituting automatic logoff. OCR reviewed the CE’s policies and procedures relating to the disclosure, breach, safeguarding of PHI, and sanctions and obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted above.