Search Privacy Violations, Breaches and Complaints
This database was last updated in December 2015 ago and should only be used as a historical snapshot. More recent data on breaches affecting 500 or more people is available at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Breach Portal.
Albany VA Medical Center: Samuel S. Stratton
Mentioned in a privacy incident report created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on May 14, 2015. Also cited in 28 other reports.
Report ID: PSETS0000119487, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Reported Entity: ALBANY NY - 528A8
Issue:
A VA supervisor who is on a 2 week suspension (need to confirm this) asked for a report to be printed from payroll. It included information on 5 employees to include their full name, pay period and amount of overtime paid from 2007-present. The supervisor took the paperwork out of the building.
Outcome:
05/14/15: The supervisor is pending removal on a charge of misuse of overtime funds, he requested and was given a report of overtime usage on 5-6 employees from 2007-present. It is believed that he requested the information in order to support this response to the proposed removal. One of the employee's whose information was requested has resigned already. 05/15/15: It has been discovered that the supervisor requested the information while on AA and was not authorized to request the information nor remove it from the facility. The supervisor made a copy of the document and provided it to his attorney. VA Police contacted him and asked that the paperwork be returned. The payroll technician who provided the information was questioned as to why she provided the information and it was discovered that the supervisor withheld the fact that he was on AA and was pending removal. The Technician stated that anyone with timekeeping supervisor menus should have been able to print the report, but did not question his intentions because she knew him as a supervisor. It was determined that she should not have given him the information on employees that he did not supervise regardless of his employment status. 05/17/15: The paperwork has been returned to the PO, however the information conflicts with the information that the payroll technician claimed to have released. The requested information is the same, but the employees differ. 5/19/15: The payroll technician did not remember the names that she provided and only remembers having provided 5-6 names with information. It was also discovered that the supervisor claims to have not made any copies and had given the original to his attorney. When contacted by the VA police, he retrieved the originals from his attorney and provided them to VA police. 05/26/15: The Incident Resolution Service Team has determined that there was a privacy violation. No data breach has occurred.