Indiana theft impacts data of 39K
Theft of a laptop and two hard drives from the car of an Indiana State Medical Association (ISMA) administrator is the source of a data breach impacting 39,090 members of its group health and life insurance plans.
The Feb. 13 theft makes this the largest data breach in Indiana during the first quarter of 2015, according to an article in theMuncie Star Press.
The device contained the Social Security numbers, medical histories or other personal information for doctors, their families and staff who hold ISMA group policies.
In its letter to those affected, ISMA said, "The theft occurred while an ISMA employee was transporting the hard drives to an off-site storage location as part of our disaster recovery plan. This was a random criminal act."
ISMA offers insurance plans through Anthem, which experienced a breach earlier this year that impacted about 80 million people. Many of those affected by this ISMA breach already had been affected by the Anthem breach.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.