After months of investigation, it looks like a data breach at health plan UnitedHealthcare Services may be behind a large-scale rash of identity theft taking place at the University of California, Irvine. As of last week, it appeared that more than 155 graduate and medical students at UC Irvine had been hit by the identity thieves, who filed false tax returns in the victim's names and collected their tax refunds. The breach could potentially affect 1,132 graduate students enrolled with the university's graduate student health insurance program in the 2006-07 school year, officials said. The IRS notes that identity thieves have been particularly aggressive this year, as they may be able to collect not only refunds, but also the pending stimulus checks being handed out to families and individuals.
To learn more about the break-in:
- read this Computeworld piece [1]
Related Articles:
Trend: Identity thieves get better at stealing medical records [2]
The growing problem of medical identity theft [3]
NY hospital worker charges with massive file theft [4]
California expands health data breach rules [5]
Links:
[1] http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9092978&intsrc=industry_list
[2] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/trend-identity-thieves-get-better-at-stealing-medical-records/2008-05-07
[3] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/the-growing-problem-of-medical-identity-theft/2006-09-25
[4] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/ny-hospital-worker-charged-with-massive-file-theft/2008-04-14
[5] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/california-expands-health-data-breach-rules/2008-01-07