Scope of UT Medicaid data breach explodes

A data breach initially thought to be limited to 24,000 Utahns on public health insurance is now believed to have put nearly 800,000 Utahns at risk. The Social Security numbers of up to 280,000 Utahns were exposed to hackers in the breach last week while less sensitive information—such as names and birth dates—from 500,000 others was released. State officials announced the new, dramatically higher numbers on Monday. Late last week, they had expanded their initial estimate and said the breach affected 181,604 Utahns on public health insurance, most of them kids on Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It touches one in every six Utahns, landing in the top 10 health security failures reported since late 2009 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.