Aetna says laptop stolen with data on 38,000 members
Data included names, addresses, Social Security numbers
Reuters - Health insurer Aetna Inc. said a laptop computer containing personal information on about 38,000 of its members was stolen from an employee's car.
The data includes names, addresses and Social Security numbers, spokeswoman Cynthia Michener said Wednesday. No personal banking information or health claim data was on the laptop, she added.
The members are employees of two companies that are Aetna customers, the company said in a statement. Michener said the two companies had asked that their names not be disclosed.
"They wanted all of their employees to have received their notifications directly before releasing their name," Michener said.
According to the statement, there was no indication that data on the laptop had been compromised. "We have no reason to believe that there has been any unauthorized use of it," the company said.
Aetna, with about 27.9 million members, is one of the largest health care insurers in the U.S.
The company said it is working to notify all affected members by letter. Aetna has offered to pay for credit monitoring services for the affected members to help prevent potential misuse of the information.
The car was broken into while it was in an outdoor public parking lot, Michener said. The doors were locked, she added.
Michener declined to say in which city or state the theft occurred.
She said the company is working with law enforcement authorities but would not say whether it was local police, or state or federal investigators.
The company has not heard from law enforcement officials whether any suspects have been identified, arrested or charged with a crime.
Aetna said it deeply regrets the incident and has apologized to its members.
It is augmenting its efforts to ensure employee compliance with all of its security requirements, the company said.
Aetna said the employee "did not follow our corporate policies, and it was coupled with a criminal theft."
Michener declined to say whether the employee still works for the company.


- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Driving Secure Enterprise File Sharing and Syncing in the Enterprise
- GroupLogic's new activEcho is the industry's only secure Enterprise File Sharing and Synching solution that balances the need for simplicity for the end...
- The Enterprise File Sharing Option
- Enterprises and IT departments need to address several critical security issues when considering file sharing and syncing products. Many of today's solutions do...
- Security Strategies to Virtualizing Internet-Facing Applications
- The IT organization at Intel has set a goal to transition their enterprise to a private cloud for their Office and Enterprise applications....
- Cloud Security Planning Guide
- Cloud security considerations span protecting hardware and platform technologies in the data center to enabling regulatory compliance and defending cloud access through different...
- Cloud Security Vendor Round Table
- This vendor round table guide will help you to evaluate different cloud technology vendors and service providers based on a series of questions... All Security White Papers
- Live Webcast
Data Privacy and Protection in Production Environments: New Research from Ponemon Institute - Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT / 10:00 AM PDT
In a recent study conducted by Ponemon Institute, fifty-five percent of respondents... - Data Privacy and Protection in Production Environments: New Research from Ponemon Institute
- Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT / 10:00 AM PDT
In a recent study conducted by Ponemon Institute, fifty-five percent of respondents... - Security Certifications 101 - BlackBerry and all those acronyms what do they mean and why they matter?
- FIPS, Common Criteria, CAPS, AISEP, NFC, NIST, Fraunhofer SIT, CESG, DSD - these are just some of the government and industry certifications which...
- BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Security Overview
- The presentation provides an overview of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 security capabilities and features, including: BlackBerry® Balance™ technology, BlackBerry® Bridge, data-at-rest protection, and...
- BlackBerry NFC Security Overview
- The presentation on NFC security will provide an overview of the security protections built into the BlackBerry platform to protect users, application developers...
- Playing Defense: Staying on Top of Your Disaster Recovery Game
- When it comes to disaster recovery, rapidly growing data volumes, distributed computing models, and new technologies all combine to present an ever-changing playing... All Security Webcasts