The Massachusetts Prescription Advantage program has had a data breach. Those senior citizens who are enrolled in the program are at risk of identity theft:

“The state of Massachusetts is warning 150,000 members of its Prescription Advantage insurance program that their personal information may have been snatched by an identity thief.

Local authorities arrested a lone identity thief in August who had been using information taken from the program in an attempted identity theft scheme, said Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services.”

link: Data theft touches 150,000 Massachusetts seniors

The report does not elaborate on whether the data was distributed further or sold. Those who are at risk may put a freeze on their credit report. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has information on its web site about the initial step to take in safeguarding finances when there has been a data breach.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster:  http://flyinghamster.com/

[tag]data breach, privacy, security, identity theft, massachusetts, prescription advantage, federal trade commission[/tag]