Data Breach Alert: Social Security numbers printed on postcards

Posted by Caitlin on November 23rd, 2009

Last week, the Universal American Action Network, a subsidiary of Universal American Insurance, sent 80,000 postcards to Medicare participants throughout the country. On these postcards, printed above the recipients' names, were their Social Security numbers.

The mistake occurred because Social Security numbers are often used as Medicare account numbers. The Universal American Action Network responded by firing the vendor responsible for the mailing, and offering one year of free credit monitoring to the Medicare members whose Social Security numbers have been compromised.

As important as it is to safeguard your sensitive personal data, particularly your Social Security number, there's just no way of guaranteeing that large organizations treat this data responsibly. Once your data has been compromised by a single careless mistake, your identity is at risk. Credit report monitoring is one way to mitigate this risk. For more comprehensive prevention and detection, you might consider investing in an identity theft protection service.