George Warren reports:
A data breach involving 29,500 Northern California Kaiser Permanente employees discovered a year ago has led to at least 400 Kaiser employees becoming victims of identity theft, according to criminal investigators.
Detectives said the woman accused of stealing the personnel files continued to victimize employees even while she awaited trial.
Mia Garza, 29, worked for the United Healthcare Workers union and is suspected of stealing the file from the union office in 2007. The Excel spreadsheet contained the names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of the 29,500 union members employed by Kaiser. The theft was discovered following an unrelated search of Garza’s home in San Ramon in December 2008 and the Kaiser employees were notified individually last February.
[…]
Sacramento detectives had been working independently on Kaiser identity theft cases, but hadn’t yet made the connection to Garza. The High Tech Crimes Task Force has now linked Garza with at least 20 associates who appear to be using the stolen Kaiser information, according to investigator Joe Moody.
Moody said most have been identified and arrests were expected soon. “They’re continuing to victimize the same Kaiser employees multiple times,” He said.
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This appears to be one of those cases where one year’s worth of free credit monitoring is simply not sufficient. Hopefully the employees are being given ongoing services and free credit restoration assistance if needed.