The Gainesville Sun reports that AvMed Health Plans announced that personal information of some current and former subscribers may have been compromised by the theft of two company laptops from its corporate offices in Gainesville on Dec. 11.
The information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and protected health information, according to an AvMed news release.
“The theft was immediately reported to local authorities but attempts to locate the laptops have been unsuccessful,” according to the news release. “On December 23, 2009, AvMed determined that the data on one of the laptops may not have been protected properly, and approximately 80,000 of AvMed’s current subscribers and their dependents may be affected. An additional approximate 128,000 former subscribers and their dependents, dating back to April 2003, may also have been affected.”
Read more in The Gainesville Sun.
A copy of AvMed’s release does not appear to be available on their web site at the time this entry was filed.
Why did Avmed wait until today to go public with this if it happened on Dec. 11th? I wonder if it had anything to do with the story coming out in the Gainesville Sun newspaper today, in Gainesville, where they’re headquartered.
Seems awfully irresponsible to keep this potentially harmful information from their customers for nearly 2 months.