Affinion Security Center Updates BreachShield, Targets Medical Industry

Affinion Security Center, announced enhancements to its BreachShield service, aimed at preventing, detecting and resolving Identity Theft resulting from data breaches. The updates are focused on helping customers at risk for medical identity theft but available for all types of organizations that could experience a data breach.

Affinion Security Center, a division of the Affinion Group, powers many of the identify theft and credit monitoring services on a private label basis for many of the largest banks in the US.

BreachShield also offers companies, including medical institutions, breach preparation, an incident response action plan, assistance with notification letter printing and mailing, and call center support.

According to the Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC), more than 222 million personal records were exposed as the result of a breach in 2009 alone. Breaches can occur in many ways, from hacking and insider theft through accidental exposure of records.

One type of ID theft documented by the ITRC is medical identity theft, which can have grave consequences. The ITRC reported that roughly a third of victims of medical ID theft responding to the survey had someone else’s medical information or medical history on their medical record, increasing the possibility of being treated incorrectly because of incorrect medical records. Other victims were billed for services provided to an imposter or were denied health or life insurance for unexplained reasons.

“As we saw in 2009, breaches can come in all sizes, from 30 records to 30 million, and are becoming more complex in nature,” remarked Tom Rusin, CEO of Affinion Security Center.

“Additionally, we anticipate that scrutiny of the medical field, such as increased regulations like HIPAA and the recently passed HITECH act, will increase the amount of breaches that are disclosed by healthcare institutions,” continued Rusin.

The updated BreachShield includes several new benefits for companies to offer their consumers in the event of a breach of their personal data, including medical information. Some services provided by BreachShield include the ability to easily report lost or stolen credit cards cards with one call, monitoring for personal information on the internet, identity theft insurance and more.