[See correction at bottom of this post]
Earlier this month, when CS Stars reported that a stolen hard drive contained claimants’ personal information, they indicated that although police had apprehended suspects in the case, the hard drive had not been recovered, and the total number of individuals with data on the stolen drive was not reported. The breach affected individuals who received workers’ compensation claims benefits from Constitution State Services, Travelers Indemnity Company and its property casualty subsidiary.
The Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection now reports that 722,000 individuals were affected and that the stolen hard drive was retrieved. They do not post the notifications they receive online, however.
CS Stars has not replied to an email request from this web site to confirm the information on Wisconsin’s site and to explain when and how the drive was recovered, if it was. As noted in previous coverage, this is not CS Stars’ first breach to be revealed publicly; the first one affected 540,000 claimants.
According to its web site, CS STARS is a business unit of Marsh Client Technologies that provides software and services to help corporations, public entities, insurers, and third party administrators improve business processes, manage costs, and reduce risk.
CORRECTION: The good folks over at OSF point out that the earlier (2006) breach reported 722,000 affected. Although media reports at the time reported 540,000 affected, that number may only have been for NYS and not the total number. At the time, states attorney general did not have their reports online. CS Star’s 2006 notification to NYS is available in the OSF database. That laptop was recovered.
At the present time, then, it is not clear how many claimants, total, had information on the recently stolen hard drive or whether it was recovered. A request to the Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection sent Tuesday evening asking them to confirm their web report and to provide a copy of the notification has not been replied to. Nor has CS Stars responded to the inquiry that they got requesting clarification.