Floridians Warned After Data Breach

The theft of a pair of laptops containing 1.2 million patient records triggered an alert to AvMed Health Plans members from Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum last week, who warned them to monitor their credit card bills for the next several months, according to a Miami Herald report .

Most of AvMed's customers are Florida residents, and many of them are state employees. Personal data for current and former AvMed members were on the laptops, stolen last December from AvMed's Gainesville, Fla., headquarters. The data included Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and health information, the company said.

In February, AvMed notified 360,000 members and former members that their information may have been compromised in the theft. Then, after continuing to investigate, AvMed officials reported on June 3 that "there is reason to believe that similar information of approximately 860,000 additional current and former members may have been included'' in the theft.

Company officials have said AvMed will provide free credit monitoring for two years to those affected. AvMed President Ed Hannum told the Herald that the company is ''strengthening our data security capabilities and procedures to help ensure that this type of incident does not occur again.''