Half Million NY Residents’ Personal Data Exposed

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New Yorkers who have made claims to the special workers’ compensation fund are affected by the breach. A Chicago-based company, CS Stars (subsidiary of Marsh, Inc.) had lost track of a computer which contained the private data. The claims-management firm was hired to install software for the Special Funds Conservation Committee.

The company is offering free credit monitoring up to a year and $25,000 identity-theft insurance to those whose data were lost.

The Special Funds Conservation Committee handles workers’ compensation coverage in New York for about 56,500 disabled workers who suffer a second injury, and about 36,000 old claims that are reopened. In existence since 1938, it maintains records on about 540,000 old and current claimants, said chief executive Steven Licht.
…

All the names in the database, Licht said, had address, date of birth and Social Security number attached, and some also would have employer and accident information, but none had confidential medical records included. Licht also said there were copies of all the data, and claims payments had not been interrupted.

Source: Newsday.com

Update (7/25/06): Those affected by the breach should go to the NYS Workers’ Compensation Board website to obtain more information.

Update (7/26/06): The laptop was just found in a secure location.  “The computer has been located and is secure,” said Karen Allen, a spokeswoman for the Special Funds Conservation Committee.”  The FBI says they are “reasonably certain” the data was not misused.  Mercury News has the report.

Written by MCruz on July 22nd, 2006 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Employees and Government and Identity Theft and Insurance.