U. seeks return of stolen billing records

For three days, he said, the courier was investigated, but police are convinced that individual made a simple, but career-ending mistake. The box and a small bag containing some personal items were the only things taken from the vehicle — the only burglary reported in that area in that 48-hour period, Winder said.

The incident is "a high priority" for an identity theft task force, which involves a dozen law enforcement agencies, Fuhrman said.

"We have had great success in our investigations," Fuhrman said. "There are steps we have taken that I can't get into publicly."

Hospital officials pointed out that when data has been stolen from other hospitals, there has been not one clear case of identity theft as a result. Fuhrman thinks identity theft in this case is unlikely. "People steal IDs for different reasons. This isn't the way people normally go about it."

Now police are asking the public to keep an eye out for the data.

During a news conference Tuesday on the theft, U. Hospital officials outlined steps the public, whose records may have been compromised, can take.

The U. is in the process of mailing out letters to all 2.2 million people, although officials believe it "was probably a random car burglary and it's unlikely the information was compromised," said Lorris Betz, U. senior vice president for Health Sciences. For the 1.3 million whose Social Security numbers were in the records, they're offering a year's free credit monitoring through Experian. And they've set up a toll-free information line and a Web site to help people.

What the U. will not do, Betz emphasized, is ask people by phone or e-mail for sensitive personal information in connection with the theft. It's fairly typical after some kind of crisis, for someone to scam people by pretending to be part of the solution to the problem. "We would advise you not to release information" that might be used for fraud or identity theft, Betz said, unless you initiate the transaction.

All transport of patient information has also been halted in the wake of the theft, Betz said. Perpetual Storage vice president James Nowa said his company is ramping up security efforts following the breach — the company's only theft in 40 years, he said.

Anyone with information on the tapes can contact the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office at 743-7000.

• The U.'s toll-free information line is 866-581-3599.

• The Web site is healthcare.utah.edu/billingrecordstheft.

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