Jun. 17, 2021
BRIDGEVILLE – Rep. Jason Ortitay (R-Washington/Allegheny) today issued the following statement as the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s contract with Insight Global ends on Saturday, June 19, and wonders why Gov. Tom Wolf has been missing in action since the data breach was disclosed at the end of April:
“Two months ago, the public and the Wolf administration became aware of the largest data breach in the state’s history as a result of the state’s contact tracing contract with Insight Global, an Atlanta-based company. This data breach included private and personal confidential information of adults and minors. As a way to remedy the situation, the company offered one year of free credit monitoring, which was essentially useless for minors caught up in this breach. Minors will be dealing with the fallout of this breach for the rest of their lives. Also lacking has been the administration’s response to this issue.
“Since learning of the data breach, the administration has allowed Insight Global to continue to handle the state contact tracing program instead of terminating it immediately. It also allowed the company to notify those impacted, which should have been carried out by the Department of Health. Nobody wants to deal with an entity that allowed their information to be exposed. Last week, after another investigative report, it was determined that private and personal confidential contact tracing information was still available on the internet and the links to that data had not been removed. Only in the last week did an email go out from Insight Global to its employees trying to get this information taken down. This is completely unacceptable. The Wolf administration needs to answer for why this wasn’t a top priority and the exposure was allowed to continue.
“Parents have been calling the Department of Health only to be referred to Insight Global. After attempting to call the governor’s office repeatedly, one parent said the office would answer and then hang up on her. She now believes that they have blocked her phone number. Where are the answers and solutions for these people? Where is Gov. Wolf? The governor has had no problem making public statements and holding multiple press conferences over the last couple of months when it comes to stating his position on legislation and issuing veto threats. So why the silence on this specific issue?
“This also sends a bad message to other vendors who do business with the Commonwealth. The Wolf administration will not hold you accountable. A vendor can tell the governor’s office that it has followed through with corrective action requested, and no steps will be taken to verify if this is true or not because that’s exactly what happened here.”
“At the end of this week, Insight Global’s contract will terminate only one month early after costing taxpayers over $30 million. Sadly, it's too little, too late for the people impacted by this breach. They’ve been abandoned by this administration.”
The 46th Legislative District includes Collier and South Fayette townships and Bridgeville, Heidelberg, McDonald and Oakdale boroughs in Allegheny County. It also encompasses Canton, Cecil, Mt. Pleasant, Robinson and Smith townships and Burgettstown, McDonald and Midway boroughs in Washington County.