BC/BS Spends $7 Million Recovering from Computer Theft
In October of 2009, 57 computers were stolen from abandoned BlueCross BlueShield offices in Chattanooga, TN. BlueCross of Tennessee has since spent $7 million responding to the theft. The cost comes partly from the 700 contract and BlueCross employees needed to determine what information was actually on the hard drives, and also from costs associated with complying with state and federal notification requirements. Company officials said the computer hard drives contained audio copies of telephone calls and video screen images that could put 500,000 Americans at risk for identity theft and privacy breaches. (Read the entire article from the Chattanooga Times Free Press here.)
Apparently, the company was planning to destroy the hard drives in a few weeks.
$7 million dollars is a lot of money, even for an insurance company. From the article:
“Mr. [Ron Harr, VP of BlueCross] said the cost of dealing with the theft will not directly lead to any increase in rates for BlueCross, which still enjoys sufficient reserves to absorb such losses.
“But we have to be honest with people and recognize that, in the end, ultimately all of our money must come from our customers,” he said.
Ouch. Could a good business relationship with a dependable shredding and information destruction company have prevented this disaster?
Hard drive destruction is becoming as important as document shredding. While the old computers may not be worth much, the data on the hard drives could be extremely valuable. The same goes for hard drives on digital copiers and fax machines, which can store up to 20,000 images. Many document shredding companies can help you dispose/destroy hard drives as well. Lakeshore Document Services has a complete hard drive destruction service.
Before you abandon that old office space, make sure it's properly cleaned out.