Texas Health and Human Services Data Breach by Fired Employees Impacts 94,000 Medicaid and Food Stamp Recipients

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) is investigating a data breach that has now impacted approximately 94,000 individuals. The breach involves unauthorized access to private information of recipients of state benefits, including Medicaid and food stamp programs. Initially, 61,000 individuals were reported affected, but an additional 33,529 recipients were recently notified about the improper access, which was perpetrated by fired state employees. The breach potentially exposed protected health information and personally identifiable details. Separately, VeriSource, a cybersecurity company, disclosed that cybercriminals accessed sensitive data affecting about 4 million individuals, though details on how the breach occurred were not provided. Other unrelated data breaches include a dating app named Raw exposing users' location data and personal information, and iHeartMedia experiencing a breach that compromised sensitive personal data. Additionally, under the leadership of Carmen Heredia, an agency withheld payments to over 300 businesses amid fraud investigations, resulting in adverse effects on patients, according to ProPublica and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.