Missing laptop contains data on 800,000 doctors

Article by Byron Acohido

I chose to critique this article more to put my own opinion out there about this topic. This short article talks about the laptop currently missing from a Blue Cross Blue Shield based in Chicago. There are 800,000 doctors' personal information on the laptop. The article also mentions the laptop that was stolen from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency lost 26.5 million records because of that one laptop being stolen.

I think this article raises many issues about the pros and cons of technology. Technology seems to be perceived in a positive light the majority of the time and we like to look at technology and its progress through time. Yet, we rarely talk about the serious cons of technology. This is a prime example, having to notify 800,000 doctors that their information is in wrong hands. Should we really be putting all of this information into computers?

The speed of having records computerized and easily accessible is great until the speed of taking it away is just as fast. However, we could also say the opposite in that someone could steal the paper documentation too. Yet, that would be at a much slower rate and would be a more difficult task.

So what do you think readers out there? Should we be holding this kind of information in computers which can be stolen in the blink of an eye?

Also, my one comment on this article overall is that I do not think this is something that should have been well publicized. Quite honestly, I did not know of anything like stealing laptops that contained so much information. I feel that having this news out in the public might encourage/provoke other burglars to try out this new challenge.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/2009/10/missing-laptop-contains-data-on-800000-doctors.html

That's all for now folks