Kaiser: Worker data breached, identity fraud reported
Health care provider Kaiser notifies its nearly 30,000 Northern California employees that data breach may have exposed their personal information.
Kaiser Permanente is notifying its 29,500 Northern California employees that their data may have been exposed in a breach, the company said on Friday. It is unknown exactly how many workers have been affected, but a handful of workers have reported identity fraud as a result of the breach, Kaiser said.
The Oakland, Calif.-based company is offering one year of free credit monitoring for anyone who is affected, according to a statement from Kaiser.
One person, who is not a Kaiser employee, was arrested after law enforcement authorities seized a computer file with Kaiser human resources-type data in that person's possession, the statement said. A Kaiser representative said Friday that police in San Ramon, Calif., notified the company in late January about the arrest of the person with the file.
No Kaiser members or their medical information were accessed in the breach, the company said.
The news is the latest in a string of breaches at large corporations. Last month, payment processor Heartland Payment Systems reported a breach in its network that exposed consumer credit card data. Last year, RBS WorldPay, another payment processor, reported a breach that led to millions of dollars being withdrawn from consumer bank accounts with cloned debit cards.