BlueCross BlueShield Data Breach up to 500,000

February 10, 2010 – 10:42 pm

The Chattanooga-based health insurer said the number of affected customers with potentially compromised identification and health information has more than doubled from the 220,133 persons already notified about the identity threat.

An additional 301,628 current and former members of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee will be receiving letters alerting them that their personal information was included on computer hard drives stolen from the insurance company last year.

BlueCross Communications Director Roy Vaughn said company subscribers and family members whose names and records could be included on the hard drives should receive a letter in mid February. The company is offering free credit and ID remediation to anyone worried about potential identity theft, he said.

“The number of affected persons is greater than we previously forecast, but we have decided to notify any affected subscriber and all of the members related to that subscriber,” Mr. Vaughn said. “We’re trying to do the right thing.

The notifications are the latest in the increasingly expensive fallout from the theft last October of 57 computer hard drives from an abandoned BlueCross training center at the Eastgate Center. BlueCross already has spent more than $7 million to identify the scope of what was taken and to notify those affected, officials said. The company is likely to spend millions of dollars more, experts estimate.

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