Private data of 208,000 at risk after laptop theft
AvMed Health Plans is currently dealing with a prominent data breach after having two company laptops stolen from their corporate offices in Gainesville in early December. The theft could compromise personal information of over 200,000 current and former subscribers, as well as their dependents, said a company announcement quoted by Gainesville.com.
The two laptops contained details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and protected health information. Yet the company states that the risk of identity theft is very low, as data was listed in a random way, regardless of the fact that, 12 days after the incident, AvMed discovered the data on one of the two laptops was not properly encrypted.
AvMed states there were no reports of identity theft up to now, but they will only have a clearer view on the situation after their members start registering for identity protection, service provided by the company for free for the next 24 months.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
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