DATA BREACH – SOUTHWEST AMBULANCE
Southwest Ambulance (Mesa, AZ) has recovered over five-hundred patient records after a recent data breach. An unnamed former Southwest Ambulance employee took 581 patient records. The patient records included personal identifying information such as names, financial and medical information.
The patients’ medical records were discovered by a property manager in a residence recently vacated by the Southwest employee. In a statement from Southwest, the records were purportedly used for training purposes over a period of several years. Southwest Ambulance has agreed to pay credit-monitoring fees for customers whose information was taken by the former employee and echo what other companies have said in their defense after similar data breaches -there is no evidence that customers’ information – including names, financial and medical-treatment information – was shared with any other parties or otherwise used inappropriately.
While Southwest Ambulance may not have “evidence” as of today about identity theft for the patients affected by the breach, that does not mean the victims are not at a greater risk for identity theft. Moreover, identity thieves may not use the victims’ personal identify information such as Social Security numbers to perpetuate crimes for many years.
Have you received a breach notification letter from Southwest Ambulance? If yes, you may be already be a victim of identity theft. Contact data security attorney Micah Adkins for a free identity theft information kit.