"More than 15,000 Kaiser Permanente patients in Northern
California this week are being notified that their personal
information, including birth dates, addresses, phone numbers and
medical-record numbers, was exposed last month after an unencrypted
external storage drive was stolen from an employee's car.
"Kaiser Permanente officials said the theft occurred in early
December after an employee left the drive inside the car at her
home in Sacramento. A week after the break-in, the unidentified
employee notified hospital officials of the potential data
breach."