California Accidentally Prints SSNs On Envelopes

California's Department of Health Care Services has apologized to nearly 50,000 Medi-Cal recipients whose Social Security numbers were disclosed on the outside of envelopes.

The department said Monday that it was immediately notifying the affected beneficiaries. It said their Social Security numbers were inadvertently included on mailing address labels created by a vendor.

Agency director David Maxwell-Jolly said the department is boosting its efforts to prevent such breaches in the future.

The Social Security numbers were included on letters mailed Feb. 1 to beneficiaries who receive adult day health care services.



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Virginia patients warned about hacking of state drug Web site

By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 4, 2009

State officials are notifying more than a half-million Virginians that their Social Security numbers may have been contained in a prescription drug database that was targeted by a computer hacker April 30.

The hacker gained access to the Prescription Monitoring Program computer system, which is designed to deter prescription drug abuse, and demanded a $10 million ransom. The hacker has not been identified.

A criminal investigation has not yet determined what, if any, personal information was put at risk in the incident, said Sandra Whitley Ryals, director of the Virginia Department of Health Professions, on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, the state is mailing individual notifications to 530,000 people whose prescription records may have contained Social Security numbers, in order to alert them to the potential for identity theft, Ryals said.

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Furthermore, as research has discovered that 41 percent of people use the same password for every website they access, many Monster and USAJobs users are likely to be at risk of their accounts on other websites are at risk of being hacked. Read more...

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by Shane Harris