Aetna Identity Theft from Stolen Laptop

"Putting information to work for you", the motto
on the Aetna website has taken a perverse turn
for the worse.

A fortnight ago Aetna, one of the largest U.S.
based health insurers, was forced to disclose
the loss of the highly sensitive information
of 38,000 members resulting from the theft
of an employee's laptop.

Yes, you read that right. Another "stolen"
laptop of a careless employee of some large
company. Careless, in the sense of why would
an employee have the most confidential and
and trusted information of the company's
members on a laptop - sitting in his car in
the first place - evidently visible to any
passerby.

The car was broken into while it was in an
outdoor public parking lot.

Aetna said the employee "did not follow
our corporate policies, and it was
coupled with a criminal theft."

Hmm, makes you wonder who's really responsible
here in the "criminal theft": the careless
Aetna employee who violated company security
policies, perhaps?

Here's why. The data which was contained on the
stolen laptop included:

• Names
• Addresses
• Social Security numbers (ssn)

To Aetna's credit, even though there's no evidence
to date of identity theft, they're offering free
credit monitoring to all affected individuals.

So, our tip for today is to make sure to contact
Aetna if you suspect your data was exposed to
identity theft. Take advantage of their "free"
credit monitoring offer.

Lastly, tell a friend or associate of this security
breach involving Aetna as the health insurer who's
responsible did not disclose what city or state the
incident took place in nor the two companies insured
with Aetna that are affected.

Endnote:

This is part 2 of our installment
continued from this Wednesday on banks and
insurance company identity theft.