Data Breach Affecting Kaiser Permanente Employees

While data breaches continued last year, Kaiser Permanente has announced one that took place last year. While no customers were affected, the private information (names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers) of nearly 30,000 Kaiser employees in northern California has been compromised.

The person illegally possessing the information, Mia Garza, was arrested in late December, and she is now facing two charges of forgery, two counts of receiving stolen property, and two counts of identity theft. At this point, investigators don't know how she obtained the computer files, and the original source of the breach is still unknown.

While only a few are known to be victims of identity theft from this breach, Kaiser Permanente recommends that employees place fraud alerts on their credit lines, and Kaiser is also offering one year of free credit monitoring to the northern California employees affected.

Once again, data breaches continue to haunt us. When large companies like Kaiser are hit, it serves a grim reminder that even companies of this size that can afford the resources to keep security tight are still vulnerable. Feel free to check out Kaiser's comments on the breach.