The latest laptop to grow legs and walk off belongs to, or at least used to belong to Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey. The company is notifying
more than 300,000 of its members that their names, Social
Security numbers and other personal information were
on a laptop computer that was stolen in Newark earlier this
month. The company has also had to inform informed the
state and federal authorities because some of the data included
Medicare or Medicaid recipients.
The company is offering one year of credit monitoring for free to those affected.
A spokesman for the company said the laptop was stolen on Jan. 5 when an employee who regularly works with
member data was robbed. Well, it is Newark… Horizon said the laptop contained no medical records, and that the computer was programmed to self-destruct on January 23. Horizon added that it is adding data encryption to all of its laptops.