A screen shot of the front page of Health Net's website
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Health insurance provider Health Net (www.healthnet.com) announced on Monday that it is investigating the disapearance of nine servers at its data center containing the personal information of 1.9 million policyholders.
The health insurer said that IBM, which manages its IT systems, first alerted Health Net about the servers missing from its data center in Rancho Cordova near Sacramento.
The hard drives contain the addresses, Social Security numbers, financial data and other information about past and current customers, employees and healthcare providers.
The company is one of the largest health insurance firms in the country, providing coverage to about 6 million Americans.
State officials say that 845,000 customers were affected by the lost records in California alone.
Two California insurance regulators, including State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, have already investigated Health Net for the missing computer data, including
Jones said Tuesday that his investigation will determine if Health Net “did everything it could have done to avoid and appropriately remedy this security breakdown.”
In a statement, Health Net said it has been contacting those customers who were affected by the data loss and has offered them “two years of free credit monitoring services, including fraud resolution and, if necessary, restoration of credit files, as well as identity theft insurance.”
“I have been in constant contact with Health Net on this matter, and I am pleased to see that the company is following protocol by notifying all the individuals affected by this privacy breach,” Jones said. “With identity-theft crimes on the rise, it is more important than ever to act immediately and comprehensively in addressing a privacy breach.”
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