Over 800,000 doctors nationwide could be at risk of identity theft
October 16, 2009 – 2:55 pm
Unless the name following your Doctor title is House, Who, Doom, Pepper or Zhivago, there might be a chance your confidential records were one of 800,000 records contained on a laptop that was recently stolen.
The laptop, which was owned by a Blue Cross and Blue Shield employee in Chicago, was stolen out of the employee’s car in August. On it were the unencrypted records of medical professionals from all over the United States. Those records contained both business and personal information of doctors and, in some cases, even their personal social security numbers.
The American Medical Association issued a warning on Tuesday for doctors to be aware of any identity tampering. Although there has been no known cases of the information being used, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has offered free credit monitoring by those who were effected. Credit monitoring services, similar to LifeLock, can go along way in preventing identity theft and makes the victim aware as soon as someone unauthorized has tried to access their credit. Unlike most other services, LifeLock also monitors websites where identity theft is frequently posted and traded. That way if you are effected by a breach of this magnitude you could be alerted before anyone gains access to your information. It could save you lots of money and (more importantly) years of time fighting charges or loans made in your name.
You can find out more about LifeLock by going to LifeLock.com. If you’re interested in becoming a LifeLock member, using promotion code DEFENSE will give you a month free of service and discount the service by 10%.
Tags: ama, american medical association, blue cross, blue shield, breach, doctor, doctors, Laptop, Stolen
