Hospitals, universities and insurance companies continue to report massive data breaches on a weekly basis, putting hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of people at risk for identity theft.
The latest security gaffe impacted almost 10,000 patients who were receiving care in New Mexico under the state’s Medicaid Salud program.
A car with a laptop containing Social Security numbers, names and patients’ health plan identification numbers was stolen from a third-party processor’s car in Chicago. The laptop was not encrypted so the state’s Human Service Department is now scrambling to notify all affected parties and advising them to keep close tabs on their banking and credit records.
eSecurity Planet has all the details on how vital personal information can easily be lost or stolen as its makes its way through multiple organizations.
New Mexico’s Human Service Department this is busy notifying more than 9,500 patients enrolled in the state’s Medicaid Salud program that their most vital and sensitive personal information was exposed last month after a car and a laptop storing the data was stolen in Chicago.
The circuitous loss of the data, which included names, addresses, phone numbers, health plan identification numbers and Social Security numbers, has become an all-too-common phenomenon as thieves are targeting laptops at airports, unoccupied cars and coffee shops in record numbers.