PITTSBURGH — A state lawmaker has requested the auditor general review the entire process that led to the awarding of that $30 million contract with Insight Global to do contact tracking in Pennsylvania.
State Rep. Jason Ortitay, a Republican from Bridgeville, told Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle that this may be the only way to get to the bottom of that massive data breach that affected more than 72,000 people across the state.
“I want to get the details and make sure we audit that process to make sure all legal processes were properly followed, because I don’t want this to ever happen again. We can’t afford another data breach like this and we can’t afford to bring in vendors in who are incapable of handling private secure data,” said Ortitay, who sent a letter to Pennsylvania auditor general requesting an audit of the emergency procurement process that was used to hire Insight Global, the company that got the contract to do contact tracing in Pennsylvania.
“I’m thinking maybe something happened with the contact tracing contract, that maybe they didn’t do their due diligence. Maybe they went through and said we need, because why else would you give a contract to a staffing agency who has no experience in contact tracing?” said Ortitay.
Target 11 broke the story last April that Insight Global did not properly secure the sensitive medical and contact information of 72,000 Pennsylvanians. No financial information was collected or compromised.
The company said last year that some employees didn’t follow proper procedures.
After Target 11 exposed the breach, the state severed the contract with Insight Global, and the Pennsylvania attorney general launched an investigation into the breach.
Ortitay said he meet with representatives from the attorney general’s office but said he never heard back from them after that initial meeting.
Ortitay was surprised to learn from Target 11 that the investigation by the attorney general’s office had been closed without any criminal or civil action.
Ortitay said he was not notified.
“It’s been a long time now that they’ve investigating this. When are we going to hear anything, and then find out that they’re done, and they never announced anything publicly. Why not announce it publicly? Seventy-two-thousand people were affected by it, maybe more, but we’re keeping it quiet. Why are we keeping it quiet? We all worked on this in good faith to get to the bottom of it, but all of a sudden, it’s got to be hush-hush, quiet,” said Ortitay.
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