Security issues always seem to come down to the weakest link. In the latest major security breech, it appears the weakest link was with whoever had custody of a portable flash drive containing hundreds of thousands of patient’s Medicaid records.
As eSecurity Planet reports the drive in question had patients’ names, addresses and other health data and is only the latest security breach to put consumer’s personal information at risk of being exploited by identity thieves.
More than 280,000 Medicaid patients in Pennsylvania this week are learning that two of the state
’
s largest managed care providers somehow managed to misplace a portable flash drive containing the kind of personally identifiable information (PII) that identity thieves often work months and years to attain.
Officials at AmeriHealth Mercy and Keystone Mercy Health Plan said they first noticed the drive was missing from the companies’ shared corporate offices on Sept. 20.