Ky. retirees pharmacy benefits data sent unencrypted
A pharmacy benefits management provider has notified about 28,000 Kentucky retirees that their personal information was not protected during electronic transmission.What type of personal information? Names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers.
What happened? Walgreens Health Initiative failed to encrypt an email containing the information that was sent to Kentucky Retirement Services.
What was the response? Walgreens said in a notification letter to affected individuals that there was a "remote" chance their records could have been compromised in transit.
Details: The email was received by a state employee, and Walgreens has not reason to believe the data was exposed at any point. The victims used Walgreens to manage their pharmacy benefits in 2007.
Source: courier-journal.com, The Courier-Journal (of Louisville, Ky.), "Ky. retiree data sent without proper security," March 18, 2009.
