Obamacare Security Breach a Possible Inside Job

This is from The Identity Theft Resource Center:

Citizens in the state of Connecticut had reason for alarm recently when news broke of a security breach of the state’s Affordable Care Act agency. While not the same as the federal HealthCare.gov website that has been at the center of so much technological criticism and concern, the state’s agency—known as Access Health CT—allowed people to sign up through the state office for health care coverage. 

But the Hartford-based Access Health CT office received a call from local law enforcement officials about a potential data breach when a backpack filled with handwritten note pads was found across the street from the agency’s offices. The notepads contained the names, Social Security numbers, and other personal information of more than four hundred applicants. 

This recent security breach isn’t a political issue or a show of support or condemnation for the ACA, but hopefully reminds the public of an even bigger threat to their personally identifiable information. Whether we like it or not, opportunistic criminals are everywhere and can be found in just about any industry. The combination of low wages and high debt can lead people to take advantage of an opportunity that sits right in front of them on their computer screens, eight hours a day. 

There seems to be no workplace that is completely immune from the danger of an employee stealing its customers’ identities. The hotel and restaurant industries are actually the single largest source of “inside job” identity thefts, but many other workplace environments lend themselves to this kind of crime. Medical offices are notorious for incidences in which billing office staff or medical transcriptionists—two positions that are often outsourced to third party companies or individuals—gather personal information and sell it to identity thieves. Public schools have also been the subject of multiple investigations, and reports have surfaced that staff members had stolen and sold the Social Security numbers of as many as four hundred students in one Florida elementary school alone. Even police officers have been arrested for using the state’s driver’s license database to steal citizens’ identities. ...