Thursday, April 18, 2013

Data Breach Victims Get Credit Monitoring Extension



(Salt Lake City, UT) – The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) will provide another year of free credit monitoring services for Utahns who were affected by the March 2012 data breach.

The extension is automatic and those who are already enrolled in the Experian credit monitoring service provided by the State will not need to take any action to ensure it continues.

Many breach victims who signed up for the fraud protection in April and May of last year are currently receiving notices that their service will expire and that there is a cost to renew. These individuals should ignore these expiration notices, as no further action is needed on their part.

“The renewal notices are occurring automatically on the one-year anniversary date of the notification process to the breach victims,” said Sheila Walsh-McDonald, Utah Data Security Ombudsman. “Any breach victim who has already paid Experian for the renewal should contact me by phone or e-mail so that we can be sure it is addressed.”

Experian is currently notifying all breach victims about the credit monitoring extension. Those who receive their communications by e-mail from Protect MyID or Family Secure should have received their notification on April 8, 2013. For enrollees who receive their communications by U.S. Postal Service, the postcards were mailed on April 11, 2013.

In addition, victims who were unable to sign up for credit monitoring services before last year’s initial deadline now have a second chance to enroll. Of the 280,000 people whose Social Security numbers were stolen, approximately 59,500 have enrolled to date.

Governor Gary Herbert and the Utah State Legislature authorized the additional year of credit monitoring in response to numerous requests from breach victims.

“I have spoken to thousands of victims and their most common request was that the credit monitoring needed to be longer than just one year,” said Walsh-McDonald. “I am pleased Governor Herbert and the Utah State Legislature were responsive to the breach victims’ request for an extension.”

For more information on the data breach or to sign up for credit monitoring, call or e-mail the ombudsman at 801-538-6923 or ombudsman@utah.gov.  For more information, visit  http://health.utah.gov/databreach/, available in both English and Spanish.

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Media Contact:
Sheila Walsh-McDonald
Data Security Ombudsman
(o) 801-538-6923 
(m) 801-588-9370