Pennsylvania Health Insurer Discloses Data Breach

A Philadelphia-based health insurance company has disclosed a data breach affecting more than 12,000 customers.

Independence Blue Cross says maintenance workers mistakenly threw out four boxes of member records instead of moving them to another office.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the mistake occurred in October but was made public Friday in a legal notice.

The paper files contained names, addresses and member ID numbers for customers in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nearly 9,000 Social Security numbers were included.

Blue Cross spokeswoman Liz Williams says there’s no indication the information has been misused. She says the company has offered free credit monitoring to those with vulnerable Social Security numbers.