Insurers to provide monitoring for 43,500
A group of insurance companies whose records were stolen will pay for credit monitoring for 43,500 government and private employees whose information is at risk of identity theft, according to a joint statement issued yesterday.
Records of the 22,000 private-sector workers and 21,500 union government workers were found on a computer used by someone under investigation for drug offenses.
The records were subpoenaed by the state attorney general's office, and unauthorized copies were apparently made while the records were at a copying service.
The U.S. Secret Service had requested the theft not be made public until Thursday while they investigated the case.
Management Applied Programing Inc., the Royal State Corp., Royal State National Insurance Co. Ltd., the Royal Insurance Agency Inc. and the Voluntary Employees' Benefit Association of Hawaii issued a statement yesterday saying they will be mailing information to clients about ways to recognize identity theft and what to do if they suspect it.
They will also provide more information on an anti-identity theft Web site that has been created, in addition to paying for credit monitoring service for a year for affected customers.
"Although this data breach was beyond our control and outside our offices, we want our clients to know we will help them protect against any adverse consequence," the statement said.