Hard Drive Thefts Cost Tennessee Insurer $7 Million

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee says the theft of computer hard drives containing personal information on hundreds of thousands of members has already cost the insurer more than $7 million.

The insurer has already contacted 220,000 members in Tennessee and elsewhere who were affected, but company officials have said as many as 500,000 members could eventually be identified as facing a risk of identity theft.

More than 700 workers have been working to determine what was on the 57 hard drives and assess the back up copies of the missing records.

BlueCross Vice President Ron Harr told the newspaper that they have sufficient resources to absorb the losses.

Latest Comments

• January 28, 2010 at 4:31 am

  Cairne says:

  Theft of data is one thing but from the way this article is written it sounds like the physical harddrives were stolen. I think Matt's idea of them selling the old computers m... read more
• January 28, 2010 at 4:03 am

  matt says:

  Is anyone else curious exactly how they lost FIFTY SIX hard drives? Was it something stupid like they sold some obsolete IT assets and forgot to wipe the drives first? Or tras... read more
• January 28, 2010 at 2:17 am

  Doh says:

  I was thinking the same thing... IJ was advertising for a new editor... Maybe they'll find one... [they used to try and be 'cute' but that went over like a lead balloon] Theft... read more