Utah WC Fund Laptop Stolen; Personal Data at Risk

The Workers’ Compensation Fund, one of Utah’s largest insurers, is working to recover a stolen laptop that held personal data records for some 2,800 people.

The laptop was taken Dec. 9 from an auditor’s car parked in the garage of that person’s home. It contained Social Security numbers and other personal information from individuals and about 1,400 companies.

Companies and individuals have been notified of the theft, WCF spokeswoman Peggy Larsen said. The company chose not to issue a statement about the theft last month, fearing that would draw attention to data that could be used for identity theft. So far there’s no indication the stolen information has been used.

“This is the first time anything like this has happened,” the agency’s CEO Lane Summerhays said in a statement. “We are taking steps so it can be the last.”

Larsen said WCF is paying for a professional security watch for the affected workers and is changing internal policies that allowed for sensitive information to be stored on laptops.

“As soon as this was discovered, every auditor brought in their laptops so that all information was removed,” Larsen said. “And, we’ve added additional levels of password protection.”

The stolen laptop was password protected but, in the future, information will be better encrypted for additional protection, she said.

Based in Salt Lake City, WCF provides workers’ comp insurance to more than 30,000 companies.

Client James W. Bunger, who runs a West Valley City energy development company, has little confidence in WCF, however. Bunger said he’s now paying to have his employees’ credit monitored. “WCF has failed to assure us that their procedures have changed to avoid such breaches of security in the future,” said Bunger, president of James W. Bunger & Associates.

Topics Fraud