An Arlington dentist says the personal information of more than 500 patients could be at risk following a break-in at her office.
Arlington police said some time between the night of August 23 and the morning of August 25, someone pried open the door to Dr. Vonica Chau’s practice off of Matlock Road and stole a computer.
In a statement, Chau’s attorneys revealed that computer contains the names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers of her patients.
Investigators said there’s no surveillance video of the incident – and they have little else to go on at this point.
Dr. Chau’s office, meanwhile, is reaching out to patients.
“At this time, Dr. Chau’s office is in the process of informing the patients whose information was compromised and complying with all federal and state regulations to help protect these patients from any fraud or identity theft issues,” her attorneys wrote in that statement.
“Personal information is valuable to an individual,” said Dr. MK Raja, a professor at UT-Arlington’s College of Business. “If they lose it, there are a lot more consequences.”
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Raja is an expert in the field of information security. He says the loss of personal information presents greater challenges to victims than other types of identity theft or fraud because it can’t be changed and often times, the company or public entity that was breached doesn’t have an extensive response plan like a bank would.
“It’s a lot of leg work for consumers,” said Raja.
If you think your personal information has been compromised, Raja says you need to immediately contact all three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) and put either an alert or freeze on your credit.
He then recommends you monitor your credit report.
“If not immediately, at least within the next three months,” said Raja. “You can get a credit report from each one of the credit bureaus for free once a year.”
Finally, he says you should file an identity theft report on the Federal Trade Commission’s website and with your local police department.
“That way if any organization claims you have bought something or someone has opened an account or something happened that you didn’t do, you can send them a copy,” said Raja.
If you have any information about this crime, you are asked to call Arlington police.
