Vermont Health Connect, the state's health insurance marketplace, has experienced at least 10 data breaches between November 2020 and February this year that have exposed users' information when logging into their accounts, according to an April 18 VTDigger report.
The login issues first occurred Nov. 12 when at least two people logged into their online Vermont Health Connect accounts and found information about another user, according to the report. Department of Vermont Health Access employees flagged the incidents as a "major issue," but similar incidents also occurred on Nov. 17 and 18, and later on multiple days in December.
The data breaches included names of other applicants and, in some instances, their children's names, birthdates, annual income and healthcare plans.
A spokesperson for Vermont's agency of human services told VTDigger that the data breaches were "unfortunate" and said the 10 incidents were "a very uncommon thing to have happen." Between November and December, 75,000 people visited the website for a total of 330,000 page views.
The security issue was fixed Feb. 17, and users have reported no similar problems since, according to the report.