• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Jackson Workers Open to ID Theft: Jackson Health System Employees Could Be at Risk of Identity Theft After Two Laptops Containing Personal Information Were Stolen in December

Posted on: Saturday, 17 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Monica Hatcher, The Miami Herald

Jun. 17--Jackson Health System informed 8,500 employees this week that their personal information may be at risk following the theft of two laptop computers seven months ago.

The computers, belonging to financial services provider ING, contained information gathered during a voluntary life insurance enrollment drive in December and included names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

"We are relatively certain the computers were stolen for their hardware value and the personal information was not accessed," said Chuck Eudy, a North American spokesman for ING, based in Amsterdam.

An inventory check at the company's Minneapolis office revealed the laptops were missing in late December, but auditors didn't realize they contained sensitive data until about three weeks ago, Eudy said.

Jackson Health was notified of the possible data breach soon afterward and sent letters to its employees this week.

"This matter is specifically related to our work with an outside vendor, and is in no way a reflection of any problem with our own data security process," Jackson said in a statement.

NO COMPLAINTS SO FAR

Martha Baker, a registered nurse and president of the 4,000-strong Service Employees Internation Union local at Jackson Memorial Hospital, said no one had complained of a possible identity theft issue.

"If it happened seven months ago, that's kind of comforting because you would think we would have heard something by now," Baker said.

But that's not necessarily true, according to Thomas Sadaka, an attorney with business law firm Berger Singerman, who previously worked for the Florida Statewide Prosecutor on Computer Crime and Identity Theft Prosecution.

Sadaka said identity thieves will sit on personal information for years before using it, precisely because victims become complacent.

"Real identity theft doesn't mean someone takes over your existing accounts, because you are going to notice that right away. They are going to open new accounts, maybe pay the bill the first couple of months, age the accounts by making payments, so they can make bigger purchases," Sadaka said.

ING is offering a credit monitoring service to Jackson Health employees for a year for those who sign up and will cover expenses should an employee fall victim to identity fraud.

Sadaka said it is absolutely necessary for employees to regularly check their consumer credit reports for the next several years.

"The thing is that now your information is out there. If I am a professional ID thief, your info -- your name, Social Security number, mother's maiden name -- isn't going to change from today to a year to several years from now," Sadaka pointed out.

The Jackson Health incident comes amid a spate of recent laptop thefts that has put the personal information of millions of Americans at risk and reveals the particular vulnerability of portable computing devices.

Last month, the Veterans Affairs Department announced that personal information of 26.5 million veterans was endangered after a laptop and disks were stolen from an employee's home. In Texas, a contractor lost equipment containing information of 1.3 million people who borrowed money through the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp.

The ING laptops were password protected, according to Eudy, but the data was not encrypted. Encryption protects information by scrambling it into indecipherable codes.

ADDING ENCRYPTION

Eudy said ING had begun adding encryption software to all of its laptops, but due to the large number of computers in its inventory, the company had not yet reached the two containing the Jackson Health data.

The six-month lapse before realizing the stolen computers contained sensitive information exposed a flaw in the system, Eudy admitted.

"It was very disappointing to us that it happened," he said.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Source: The Miami Herald

More News in this Category