Personal Info of 29,500 Kaiser Employees Stolen

Via cbs13.com -

Thousands of northern California Kaiser employees are being notified that their personal information including social security numbers was stolen from the company.

Kaiser has set-up a Employee Security Support Line for the 29,500 employees whose information was stolen to handle the situation. A recorded message on the line says that the stolen information was found in the possession of a criminal who has since been arrested. The information included employee names, social security numbers and birthdates. And that so far, only a 'few employees had been impacted'.

Kaiser says it is working with law enforcement to discover how their computer system was breached. But it does not say when the information was actually stolen or recovered.

In a statement released to CBS13, Kaiser said no patient information or health files were involved. "The file appears to contain information typically considered to be Human Resources type data. There was no Kaiser Permanente member information or personal health information involved. We regret that this unfortunate incident occurred," said Gay Westfall, Senior Vice President Human Resources, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan/Hospitals, Northern California.

Kaiser says it is notifying affected employees in three ways: by automated phone call, by letter to their home and by email at their work email address if they have one. Kaiser is also offering to pay for a year of credit monitoring for the employees.