Ct. exchange data breach traced to call center worker

Access Health CT, Connecticut's health insurance exchange, has reported a data breach discovered when a call center worker’s backpack was found to contain notebooks with the personal information of about 400 individuals.

The backpack was found on the street, and its owner, the call center worker, has since come forward. The notebooks contained names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of the state exchange's customers.

“While we are still working to understand exactly why this person took the information out of the building, based on what we have learned so far it does not appear there was malfeasance on the part of this person,” according to a statement from Access Health spokeswoman Kathleen Tallarita.

The individual, who has not been identified, is currently on administrative leave and no longer has access to its system, according to Tallarita.

Access Health CT officials said that the notes found in the backpack are sometimes made by call center representatives to assist clients as they navigate through the enrollment system but that it is “expressly prohibited” for the information to leave the call center, reported Hartford Courant.

The exchange is offering credit monitoring, fraud resolution, identity theft insurance and security freezes of credit reports to all those impacted.