Nearly 20,000 policyholders of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will be offered a year of free credit monitoring because some of their information was sent to a wrong address.

The Citizens Board of Governors, in a teleconference Thursday, approved up to $640,000 in emergency funding to cover the cost of providing credit oversight from the information-services company Experian. The final cost will depend on how many policyholders take advantage of the offer.

The data release does not meet the definition of a security breach under Florida law. However, Citizens Chief Legal Officer Dan Sumner told the board the offer is “prudent.”

From December through March, some policyholder “declaration” pages were mailed to incorrect addresses. Most went to an incorrect mortgage company, while others were mailed to a pair of policyholders.

Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier noted the state-backed agency has retrieved the information from the mortgage company, and two policyholders “returned the declaration packages unopened.”
Declaration pages contain policyholders’ names, addresses, telephone numbers, policy numbers, premium amounts, coverage limits and property mortgage loan numbers.

The pages do not include Social Security numbers, credit-card or payment information or passwords and usernames for online accounts.

“Citizens is in the process of making changes to its policyholder data management system and updating its training materials to reduce the likelihood of similar incidents occurring in the future,” Citizens President and Chief Executive Officer Barry Gilway wrote in a summary that was sent to the board.

During the teleconference, the board also approved a $3.9 billion risk-transfer package for the 2015 hurricane season. The package is expected to bolster Citizens’ surplus and eliminate the risk of potential assessments on Florida policyholders if a “1-in-100 year storm” hits Florida.

Source:  Orlando Sentinel