State warning more than 20,000 Medi-Cal recipients about identity theft

[Kadie]

Posted on Sat, May. 28, 2005


State warning more than 20,000 Medi-Cal recipients about identity theft possibility

Associated Press


SACRAMENTO - State health officials have begun notifying more than 20,000 Medi-Cal recipients that they could become targets of identity theft because a laptop computer was stolen.

The computer, which contained the names, Social Security numbers and health information about 21,600 Medi-Cal recipients, was stolen from the trunk of a car belonging to an employee of a company that provides the state with data services.

Ken August, a spokesman for the Department of Health Services, said state officials deeply regretted that personal information about the recipients may have been disclosed. "The safety of this information is of great concern to us," he said.

State Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, said she will introduce legislation to require state agencies and their contractors to encrypt personal information on laptop computers so it cannot be read by unauthorized persons.

more...
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/11764302.htm

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Oh yeah, 'a laptop ...was stolen'

I worked with sensitive data. We weren't allowed to store individually-identifiable data on laptops. That was over ten years ago.
The reason was that our contracts included clauses detailing the severe penalties for violating confidentiality.

EDS should have its state contracts revoked and be prevented from bidding on state contracts for some period of time. They were just starting to encrypt the data NOW?