Breach, Data Security, Vulnerability Management

Records of more than 17K Medicaid patients in New York compromised by employee

An employee with the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) is suspected of forwarding more than 17,000 records to a personal email account.  

How many victims? 17,743 records of Medicaid recipients.

What type of personal information? Includes, but may not be limited to, first and last name, date of birth, Medicaid client information number and Social Security number.

What happened?  An employee is suspected of accessing the records and emailing them to a personal account.

What was the response? The OMIG notified each potentially compromised individual and sent each person a letter containing instructions on how to monitor credit and protect against identity problems. OMIG has devised tighter controls in its information technology department to limit access to data. All agency employees have been retrained on data security.

Details: An employee is suspected of having made a personal decision, without agency involvement or authorization, to send the records of 17,743 Medicaid recipients to a personal email address. The employee is on administrative leave while the New York State Inspector General's Office conducts an investigation.

Quote: “OMIG expects all employees to act in a professional, ethical manner while in the workplace, and will not tolerate behavior that leads to the release of confidential information,” said Medicaid Inspector General James C. Cox in a release.

Source: omig.ny.gov, “OMIG Identifies Security Breach: Employee Suspected of Releasing Unauthorized Data,” July 15, 2013.

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