Vendor that mishandled Pennsylvania virus data to pay $2.7 million in federal whistleblower case

A large staffing firm that performed COVID-19 contact tracing for Pennsylvania and exposed the private medical information of about 72,000 residents will pay $2.7 million in a settlement with the Justice Department and a company whistleblower, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health paid Atlanta-based Insight Global tens of millions of dollars to administer the state’s contact tracing program during the height of the pandemic. The company was responsible for identifying and contacting people who had been exposed to the coronavirus so they could quarantine.

Employees used unauthorized Google accounts — readily viewable online — to store names, phone numbers, email addresses, COVID-19 exposure status, sexual orientations and other information about residents who had been reached for contact tracing, even though the company’s contract with the state required it to safeguard such data.

State health officials fired Insight Global in 2021 after the data breach came to light. A subsequent federal whistleblower lawsuit alleged that Insight Global secured its lucrative contract with Pennsylvania knowing that it lacked secure computer systems and adequate cybersecurity.

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