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National Guard To Take Over COVID-19 Contact Tracing After State Fires Vendor Over Data Breach

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

HARRISBURG (KDKA) - The National Guard will take over contact tracing after the Pennsylvania Department of Health fired a third-party vendor over a data breach.

"We are excited to be able to announce that we have now brought on the National Guard to make sure that there will be no break in continuity of our contact tracing efforts to be able to really carry us through to a more permanent transition there as well," Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said Thursday.

The state's current contract with Atlanta-based Insight Global doesn't expire until July 31, but the Department of Health is terminating the contract early on June 19. It comes after a COVID-19 contact tracing data breach impacted at least 72,000 Pennsylvanians.

The Department of Health says Insight Global had disregarded safety protocols, with some employees creating Google accounts to share data, including information gathered from contact tracing calls. Those documents were left unprotected and that made them vulnerable to access.

The data breach has led to state senators now pushing to amend personal data breach legislation for data breaches within state governments, including third-party vendors.

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