Last week, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum (R) announced that two laptops stolen from the offices of AvMed Health Plans in December contained personal information on 1.19 million state residents, the Miami Herald reports.
Stolen data included:
- Addresses;
- Dates of birth;
- Health information; and
- Social Security numbers (Dorschner, Miami Herald, 6/4).
Worse Than Expected
The number of customers affected by the data breach is three times higher than originally estimated.
The company reported the stolen laptops in December (Clark, Gainesville Sun, 6/4). In February, AvMed notified 360,000 individuals that their personal data might have been compromised.
However, a more comprehensive investigation revealed that information for an additional 860,000 individuals could be at risk (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/4).
Follow-Up Action
AvMed said it would begin notifying affected customers this week by mail and offer no-cost identity protection for two years through Debix Identity Protection Network (Gainesville Sun, 6/4).
AvMed President Ed Hannum said the company is strengthening its data security strategies to avoid similar incidents in the future. However, the company thus far has no evidence that the data has been misused (Miami Herald, 6/4).
McCollum is encouraging customers to monitor their credit statements and report suspicious activity to law enforcement officials (Gainesville Sun, 6/4).