Blue Cross warns 300,000 customers information was stolen

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By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jan 30, 2008 at 10:11 AM EDT

Story Updated: Jan 30, 2008 at 10:11 AM EDT

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's largest health insurance company is warning more than 300,000 members that some of their personal information was on a laptop computer that was stolen.

Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield says the risk of identity theft is small because the data was protected by password. Also, the computer was programmed to automatically destroy the information on Jan. 23.

The laptop contained names, Social Security numbers and other personal information for about 10 percent of the insurer's 3.3 million customers in New Jersey. Medical information was not included.

The company says the computer was taken from an employee's home on Jan. 5.

Customers whose names were on the computer are being offered a year of free credit monitoring.

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Information from: The Star-Ledger, http://www.nj.com/starledger

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