Tricare data breach affects 4,700 families

[unhappycamper]

Tricare data breach affects 4,700 families
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 7, 2007 16:19:05 EST

Letters are in the mail to about 4,700 households who submitted claims through the Tricare Europe office since 2004 about a data breach involving their personal information — a month after the breach was reported.

Most of those affected have since moved from Europe.

Electronic Data Systems notified Tricare on Nov. 7 that they had not properly secured a part of the system it maintains for Tricare, and “certain external entities” had been allowed access to a file with personal information.

That file contained full or partial Social Security numbers. For one or more members of each household, it included their name, date of birth, and a medical diagnosis code associated with a health benefits claim submitted to Tricare Management Activity.

“We don’t think this is a malicious intrusion,” said Julie Basa, a spokeswoman for EDS, an information technology company that supports a health benefits system for the Defense Department’s Tricare Management Activity. There has been no indication that any data has been misused, she said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/military_tricarebreach_071207w/