Genworth Life Insurance Company is notifying certificate holders in three long term care plans after learning that their information was stolen.
On December 19, 2013 Genworth was notified by federal law enforcement officials that some Genworth Group Long Term Care (LTC) certificate holders’ information was recovered during a criminal investigation. In a letter dated January 13 to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, Melissa Tyree, Director of Operations for Genworth, writes that Genworth cooperated with law enforcement and immediately began its own internal investigation. As a result, she writes, they determined that the personal data recovered was limited to certificate holders associated with three group plans. The group plans were not identified in her letter.
Law enforcement believes the theft occurred while payment processing forms including name and social security number were in the possession of the financial institution that processes these payments on our behalf. While the payments were from September 2011, the information was recovered by law enforcement on December 19, 2013. The federal investigation is ongoing.
In their letter to those affected dated January 2, the Data Security Team had suggested that law enforcement had also been looking into whether the data had been stolen while under the control of the post office:
On December 19, 2013, Genworth was notified by federal law enforcement officials that they believe unauthorized individual(s) obtained access to documents containing your name and social security number. Law enforcement agencies are currently conducting an ongoing investigation. At this time, they believe your information was stolen while it was in the possession of the postal service and/or the bank that processes payments for your Group Long Term Care policy. The breach did not occur at your employer. The documents recovered by law enforcement officials on December 19, 2013 were dated September, 2011.
Those affected have been offered free credit monitoring through ITAC Sentinel Plus.
You can read Genworth’s notification to Maryland and to affected Maryland residents here.