I read the following news story by Dan Wallach and thought, “Are you kidding me?!”
The Texas Comptroller’s office has arranged for individuals affected by an inadvertent exposure of personal data to receive a 70 percent discount on one year of credit monitoring to alert them if their information is misused.
On Monday, the comptroller’s office revealed that as many as 3.5 million Texans – state employees and unemployment insurance applicants from 2007 through 2009 – could have had their private information posted on a publicly accessible server for more than a year.
Read more on Beaumont Enterprise.
The state should foot the bill totally, not the victims. This is just wrong. Doesn’t the state carry insurance that it can use to fund the services?
No, the state is self insured. Also, going through a 27 billion dollar shortfall. The cost would be staggering. What did the VA offer? I don’t remember anything other than a letter telling me they were sorry.
Thanks for that information.
I think your memory is correct. As I recall, the VA didn’t offer anything. They also got sued over the breach and wound up having to pay out about $20 million. And that’s apart from all the legal fees, time spent dealing with Congress and states, etc.
So what would this cost the state in terms of bulk coverage, and how does that compare to what they may have to pay if they don’t do it?
If I remember, I got two letters, both were a bit vauge and had a general letter saying they are sorry. I remeber saying that is what I need to do when I do something wrong at work.
Boss: You did this wrong, you need to fix it NOW !
me: insert standard letter of “I am sorry” and have boss talk to hand
Boss: I will sue you !!
Lawyer: Chaaaa ching
me: talk to hand.