The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) announced today an error has lead to potential online exposure of personal information provided by clients and applicants of the Wyoming Kid Care CHIP program.
WDH Information Technology was notified Thursday that personal information of Kid Care clients was improperly appearing in Google search results. Thirty seconds upon receiving the call, Information Technology shut down the web site involved. The files that were being searched by the search engine have also been removed from the web site.
“I want to make it crystal clear that NO health record information was compromised by this error,” said Dr. Brent Sherard, Wyoming Department of Health director and state health officer. “However, personal information such as address information and children’s social security numbers provided by clients and applicants of the Wyoming Kid Care CHIP program may have been exposed.”
Lee Clabots, Wyoming Department of Health deputy director for administration, said “We are still investigating exactly what happened and do not yet have all the answers. However, we do know the problem was not caused by intentional wrongdoing.”
WDH provided automated recorded calls to about 5,000 affected families this afternoon with an initial notice about the situation. Each family will also be receiving detailed letters in the coming days.
The department is contracting with Debix, an identity protection service, to offer free help to affected families. “This company’s services will offer additional security to families to help ensure the children’s information is not stolen or improperly used,” Clabots said. Affected families will be asked to contact Debix at 877-676-0371 beginning Saturday morning.
Sherard said, “While we believe at this point the potential harm was minimal, this is a situation we are taking very seriously. My staff is working diligently to ensure this does not happen again.”
Source: Wyoming Department of Health