As many as 150 million working Americans are covered by health plans organized under ERISA. Given the scale of health insurance data breaches, there is a high probability that millions of them — and their health plans — will be a victim of fraud and identity theft.
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More than 400 million health insurance identities have been breached or compromised since 2021 alone. Yet no breached entity, employer, third-party administrator (TPA) or health insurance carrier has offered any protection against identity theft and fraud against health insurance benefits. This is potentially a large, yet unaddressed risk to plan sponsors and their servicers that benefit brokers and advisers need to help their employer clients guard against.
The absence of protected health information (PHI) contributes to the rise in class-action suits against breached entities. As soon as a health…
THE TD BANK INSIDER “BRIBE-FOR-DATA” SCHEME (USA)
Date: February 17, 2026 Perpetrator: Edward Low (Former Bank Employee)
Case Description: In a high-profile case of “Insider Threat,” Edward Low, a former employee of TD Bank in New York, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal court to accepting bribes in exchange for confidential customer data. Between 2021 and 2022, Low leveraged his internal access to harvest the personal details of high-balance account holders. He then sold this “hot data” to external fraud syndicates for as little as $26,700 in personal kickbacks.
The external fraudsters used the information Low provided to conduct “Account Takeovers” (ATO), creating fraudulent checks and falsifying bank records to drain over $500,000 from unsuspecting customers. Low even went as far as helping co-conspirators open shell company accounts at a second financial institution where he was later employed. He now faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. This case has sent shockwaves through the global banking sector, highlighting that even the most robust external firewalls cannot protect against a “rogue insider” with administrative credentials.
Link to Original: US Dept of Justice – TD Bank Insider Plea