Breach, Data Security

Stolen laptop impacts 3,500 individuals in South Carolina

Nearly 3,500 members of the South Carolina Health Insurance Pool may have had personal information compromised after a password-protected laptop containing the sensitive data was stolen from an independent auditor's car.

How many victims? 3,432. 

What type of personal information? Names and Social Security numbers are among the information on the laptop.

What happened? A password-protected laptop containing the personal information was stolen from the vehicle of an independent auditor.

What was the response? A company was hired to notify impacted individuals, who will be receiving credit monitoring services. The auditor's firm will pay for those services.

Details: The laptop – which contained the names of people who were in the agency's high-risk pool in 2011 and 2012 – was stolen on Oct. 16 and notification letters started being mailed out on Dec. 18. The laptop has not been recovered, but officials are not aware of any reported frauds as a result of the theft.

Quote: It took time to determine what data was stolen, to hire a company to notify impacted individuals and to set up credit monitoring, Cynthia Hutto, an attorney hired by the pool, said.

Source: wistv.com, “Stolen laptop contained data on 3,400,” Dec. 30, 2013.

Get daily email updates

SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news

By clicking the Subscribe button below, you agree to SC Media Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.