Whenever anyone goes to the DMV, they see signs reminding everyone to sign the back of their license so that they can be an organ donor. The system as it stands in the United States is in desperate straits and there are now more and more commercials on television showing the stories of people whose lives have been saved by organ donation. So for those great individuals who make this commitment in the state of Florida, you should get a pat on the back. You should also get Lifelock to make sure that no one is committing identity theft with your personal information.

It was reported today that there was a data breach at the Organ and Tissue Donor Registry, which is housed by The Agency for Health Care Administrations. It appears that up to 55,000 people might have had their private information, such as names, addresses, social security numbers, and drivers license numbers, stolen. There are still only limited details at this point, although it is clear that the state is taking the breach seriously.

Those who were affected by the breach should receive a letter in the mail in the next few days. The Agency for Health Care Administrations wants to make clear that it is only contacting people by mail and not phone or email. If anyone gets asked for their social security number of other private information over the phone or in an email, they should be weary of responding since this might be a phishing attempt to further extend identity theft. In the letter that was sent out to people, it explains that the breach took place on June 20 and was discovered the next day and corrected. There is no explanation given for how the issue was so quickly resolved or solutions to prevent this type of breach from taking place in the future.

At this point, according to a statement by AHCA Secretary Holly Benson, there is no indication that any of the information was illegally obtained. At the same time though, since the investigation is still ongoing and the story developing, people are advised to keep an eye on their credit reports and look out for any suspicious activity. One way to ensure that you are protected is to invest in an ID theft subscription service, such as Lifelock. The company, famous for its founder who lists his social security number of a drunk and drives it around downtown New York because he is confident in the protection his company gives, monitors all three credit bureaus. It keeps tabs and is notified whenever a new credit card or loan application is filed. It then contacts its customer to make sure this is a valid application. It then can stop or allow the file to continue. Since many victims of identity theft are subjected to long periods of trying to cleanup their credit records after the fact, taking a proactive step before any illegal activities occur is advised.

Tags: AHCA, Florida DMV, lifelock, Organ and Tissue Donor Registry

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 2:54 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.