FBI Hacking Investigation Negligence Lawsuit

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 22, 2018

My family and I, particularly our young daughter, were the victims of not one but two(!) health insurance company data breaches: Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and Premera Blue Cross. At the time (2013 – 2015) these were two of the worst data breaches ever.

It was officially pretended that identity theft was the only concern from these so only cheap credit monitoring (probably using the now-hacked Equifax) for a couple of years needed to be offered as a remedy. However, child abductors, including pedophiles, find this information invaluable since it includes names, addresses and medical records, which is personal information that greatly aids a child abductor.

The FBI, under disgraced former Director James B. Comey, said it was investigating both of these data breaches. However, nothing ever came of this — no convictions, no arrests, not even any idea of who did it — even after I appealed to Comey to do something.

It has become increasingly clear that the FBI can not, because of incompetence, and will not, because of disinterest, protect the common American, even when they are handed the information. We will thus have to do it ourselves. For this reason, as prelude to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the FBI, I sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demand for all the FBI records relating to these data breaches to David M. Hardy, FBI Chief of Records, and a demand for an investigation of FBI negligence in these cases to Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The letter is below.

Michael Horowitz is the Obama-appointed DOJ Inspector General who recently announced an investigation into misconduct by former FBI Director Comey in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. His first big case as Inspector General was investigating the notorious ATF Operation Fast and Furious (gunwalking). These actions are admirable but it remains to be seen if they were simply publicity stunts by Horowitz or he actually cares about protecting common Americans from crimes like child abduction.

Letter to FBI

Michael E. Horowitz, DOJ Inspector General
Re: Call for investigating FBI, pre FBI lawsuit
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 4706
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001

David M. Hardy, FBI Chief of Records
Re: FOIA request, pre FBI lawsuit
170 Marcel Drive
Winchester, VA 22602-4843

Sirs:

Due to Obamacare, starting in 2013 individual health insurance plans for all children in Montana were taken over by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (MT DPHHS). This included our young daughter.

In July 2013 MT DPHHS was hacked, probably on a continuing basis. Only in May 2014 was the data breach discovered by MT DPHHS and only in July 2014 did they notify us; see enclosed letter.

At the time MT DPHHS was one of the largest and most disastrous data breaches ever. Thousands of children had their names, addresses and medical information stolen. While it was officially pretended that only identity theft was the concern, many parents were more worried about child abduction, which the stolen information greatly aids. Having discovered a convicted pedophile supplying suspicious computers to libraries and schools in Montana we were very concerned about this as well.

In the news MT DPHHS said they had notified the FBI and the FBI said they were investigating the MT DPHHS data breach.

By February 2015 there was no word about the investigation so I sent a certified letter about it to the FBI, specifically then FBI Director Comey; see enclosed. I have postal proof that this was received by the FBI but I never received any response whatsoever from the FBI.

Before moving to Montana I had worked as a network engineer at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC), a Department of Defense facility, in Alaska. We, including our young daughter, had Premera Blue Cross health insurance there.

In May 2014 Premera was hacked, probably on a continuing basis. Only in January 2015 was the data breach discovered by Premera and only in March 2015 did they notify us; see enclosed letter.

Again, at the time Premera was one of the largest and most disastrous data breaches ever. Thousands of children had their names, addresses and medical information stolen, making them ripe for abduction.

And again, the FBI was said to be investigating — in particular see the first paragraph of the letter. And again, nothing ever came of it.

It has become clear over the last few years, and particularly recently, that the FBI does nothing to protect common American people, even when they are handed information, so we will have to do it ourselves. Because the FBI negligently did not resolve the MT DPHHS and Premera data breaches we, far more than most, must live in fear of our daughter being abducted.

This is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all records — in digital form — the FBI has regarding the MT DPHHS and Premera data breach investigations described. All records but particularly the IT records, which as an IT expert I am far more qualified than the FBI to analyze anyway.

This is also a call for an investigation by the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General of negligence by the FBI, including former FBI Director Comey, in investigating these data breaches.

This is a prelude to a multimillion-dollar negligence lawsuit against the FBI, including Comey, so if you say there are few or no records available, I will use that as evidence of negligence in the lawsuit. Of course, again failing to respond at all will also be used as evidence.

Sincerely,

Dr. Duane Thresher

CEO, Apscitu Inc., IT consulting for VIPs, https://Apscitu.com/Credentials/
Network engineer, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC, a DOD facility)
PhD, supercomputing, Columbia University and NASA
MS, supercomputing, University of Arizona and NCAR
BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT and NASA