The Michigan Department of Community Health is informing more than 2,500 individuals of a data breach that involved the state’s long term care ombudsman when his laptop was stolen earlier this year.
In late January, a laptop and flash drive were stolen from a State Long Term Care Ombudsman’s Office employee, potentially exposing personal information for participants in the LTC Ombudsman’s Office programs. While the information on the laptop was encrypted, the data on the flash drive was not. That data contained personal information for 2,595 individuals the state office is now notifying of the breach; including names, addresses and in some cases, Social Security and Medicaid identification numbers.
“MDCH takes any potential breach of security with the utmost seriousness and sincerely regrets that this breach occurred,” said Nick Lyon, Chief Deputy Director of the MDCH. “We are working swiftly to notify any individuals who may have been impacted and with staff to tighten our security procedures going forward.”
The MDCH is offering free credit monitoring services to all of those whose data was contained on the flash drive.
The breach is the latest to impact the senior care market. Several private companies have experienced data breaches this year, most recently Assisted Living Concepts announced that an unauthorized third party improperly obtained” access to its vendor credentials, gaining access to the company’s payroll files for current and former employees.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
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