State Auditor’s Office Encourages New West Health Customers to Take Advantage of ID Protection Services
There’s only a few days left for Montanans to take advantage of credit protection offers from the state auditor’s office. Chief Legal Counsel Jesse Laslovich said the services include $1 million in free insurance coverage against losses related to a recent insurance company data leak.
"We were informed a couple of months ago by New West Health Services that approximately 25,000 current and former policy holder's of theirs data was breached. This unfortunately is becoming far too common in our world," Laslovich said. "Despite their efforts, they've gotten about a 15 percent response rate."
Laslovich said if New West customers respond within the week, they will have coverage in the event that their data is used.
"This is meant to protect them. The information, unfortunately, has already been retrieved by the folks who aren't entitled to it. We want to make sure that we put the protections in place so the folks can't use the information in ways that will be harmful to people," Laslovich said. "Folks can call our office, or perhaps even call New West Health Services in Helena to sign up."
New West Health Services reported in January that a stolen laptop may have put personal information of 25,000 past and present customers at risk.