Firm says it outsourced lost South Shore Hospital data

A company that was hired by South Shore Hospital to destroy 800,000 obsolete computer records says the files were lost after the work was outsourced to a second firm.

The Weymouth hospital announced the data breach earlier this month, saying the material could contain Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information of patients, employees and others. But officials said there was no evidence that the missing material had fallen into the wrong hands.

A spokeswoman for Archive Data Solutions told The Patriot Ledger that it was told by its own outside vendor in early May that the files had been lost.

The spokeswoman, Jill Fallon, said Archive Data Solutions tried for about a month to track down the files before notifying the hospital. She did not identify the other company.