Attorney General Brian E. Frosh today announced that the Office of the Attorney General Consumer Protection Division entered into a settlement agreement with Visionworks, LLC, resolving an investigation into two data breaches the company experienced in 2014 that affected more than 72,000 Marylanders.
Visionworks failed to properly secure consumers’ personal information while upgrading to fully encrypted servers at stores in Annapolis and Jacksonville, Fla. The old servers were left unsecured in the stores, with consumers’ names, addresses, dates of birth and purchasing histories still on the hard drives. Both servers also contained three days of encrypted credit card data. They were accidentally misplaced and are believed to have been taken to landfills.
There is no evidence that any consumers’ identities or personal information has been compromised, but Visionworks notified all affected customers informing them of the incident and offered them one year of free credit monitoring.
“Devices that contain personal information must be properly secured and discarded. Otherwise, the door is open for data to fall into the wrong hands,” said Attorney General Frosh. “This case should put businesses on notice that they need to be vigilant on behalf of their customers.”
Under the settlement, Visionworks will pay the state $100,000 and has agreed to adopt improved security practices. The company will also provide an additional year of credit monitoring and identity theft insurance to any patient who contacts Visionworks or the Consumer Protection Division in the next two years regarding the potential disclosure of their personal information.
Marylanders can contact the Consumer Protection Division’s Identity Theft Unit at 410-576-6491 for more information.
SOURCE: Maryland Attorney General’s Office
Previous coverage of these breaches can be found on PHIprivacy.net:
- Statement on recent Visionworks privacy issue affecting 75,000 customers (update2)
- Visionworks files second breach report with HHS
- Confirmed: Visionworks had second data breach.
Both incidents still show as open cases on HHS’s public breach tool.