Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ exposes 300,000 customers to fraud

I come home tonight to find multiple letters addressed to myself, my wife and young children informing us how Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey lost our confidential personal information (name, address and social security number) and exposed my entire family to potential fraud and identity theft.

The letter also says: “We do not believe any of your medical data was on the computer.” That’s not definite. It’s possible, but they are not sure.

My wife and I are outraged. No explanation was given as to why an employee is taking home our confidential information on a laptop.

Careless procedures and a casual attitude have needlessly exposed my family to risk and extra burden now.

These large companies insist on collecting unnecessary information about you. A health insurance company has no need for any person’s social security number, period! The Social Security Number is for social security and tax reporting and is not a universal ID number. Now Horizon has carelessly lost the data and put 300,000+ people at risk.

This is exactly why I’ve been writing about this topic on this blog for nearly two years.

I’ve seen this kind of sloppy behavior repeatedly at the mega brand companies I’ve worked with. The PR department says one thing. The Privacy Dept says another thing. Then the line managers ignore the policies because they’re under pressure to get their work done.

The Health Insurance companies bully us around and all we do is bend over and take it. I really wish our politicians would start investigating these shenanigans.

Related Links:

• Horizon says stolen laptop had customers’ information
• More articles about careless organizations that allow data to be stolen…