Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — About 7,000 residents of Sedgwick, Harvey and Butler counties are expected to receive warning letters from the Kansas Department on Aging, alerting them that their Social Security number and other personal information may have been compromised following the theft of an agency laptop computer.

Officials today said the computer, a flash drive and some paper documents containing health and other personal information about the agency clients were taken from a vehicle being used by a KDoA employee Jan. 12 in Wichita. The stolen items have not been recovered.

“We are immediately reviewing policies and procedures relevant to information security, especially for those employees whose duties require travel off-site, to prevent a similar situation from reoccurring,” said KDoA Secretary Shawn Sullivan in a prepared statement.

The stolen items carried information including client names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, gender, Medicaid identification numbers and other case particulars.

Department officials said there was no evidence to indicate that the information had been accessed or misused as a result of the theft but that they had telephoned clients whose Social Security numbers were potentially compromised in order to alert them. All affected clients will receive the warning letter, they said.

They said they would post additional information as it becomes available on the agency website. The agency also can be contacted toll-free at (855) 477-0395.