The state’s health insurance exchange, Access Health CT, said an employee of its call center vendor Maximus dropped a backpack on Friday containing notepads with personal information of approximately 400 health insurance customers.
The Maximus employee is believed to have dropped the backpack on Trumbull Street in Hartford, where it was found, but officials have not said by whom or how long after it was dropped.
The pads contained handwritten names, approximately 200 social security numbers, and birthdates for approximately 400 people.
The exchange said it’s not unusual for call center employees to take such notes during calls at work, but said employees are forbidden from leaving the exchange’s offices with such documents.
The unidentified Maximus employee, who has since been placed on administrate leave and had his access to the exchange’s systems revoked, turned himself in after seeing story about the lost backpack on a Friday evening news broadcast, officials said.
“While we are still working to understand exactly why this person took the information out of the building, based on what we have learned so far it does not appear there was malfeasance on the part of this person,” Jason Madrak, Access Health’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement Sunday.
Exchange officials have started to contact those whose names and information were found in the backpack, and officials said they will be offered free credit monitoring, fraud resolution, identity theft insurance and security freezes of credit reports.
Access officials have scheduled a press conference for Monday at 2 p.m. to discuss the breach with the media.
