–Stolen Concentra Tapes Also Affect Nationwide Health Ins. Customers
(24 January 2007)
Backup tapes stolen from a lockbox at a Concentra Preferred Systems office in Weymouth, Mass. hold sensitive, personally identifiable information of more than 28,000 Nationwide Health Plan customers. The data include names, Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and health information. The breach affects only Nationwide Health Plan customers, mostly from central Ohio; car, life and homeowners policyholders were not affected. The theft occurred on October 26, 2006; Nationwide was apprised of the situation two weeks later. Nationwide notified customers by mail last week, although Concentra's web site had a notice about the theft on December 1.
A Nationwide spokesperson said the delay between their learning of the breach and their notification of customers was to allow the company to determine the nature of the data stolen and whether it was exploitable by identity thieves and fraudsters. The stolen tapes also hold data belonging to about 130,000 Aetna and 42,000
Group Health Insurance customers; those customers were notified in mid-December. Concentra is a subcontractor providing auditing services to Nationwide.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/business/business.php?story=241942
[Editor's Note (Honan): From the article "Nationwide was among the first insurance companies to offer identity theft insurance, rolling out the product in 2005 after one of the company directors had his identity stolen.", Oh the irony of it all. ]
