Health Insurance Provider Anthem Reviews Massive Data Breach

The nation’s 2nd largest health insurance provider, Anthem, alerted its consumers on Wednesday that hackers had stolen the private information of probably tens of millions of customers.

Personal information which includes addresses, birthdays, medical detection numbers, social security numbers and a few income data belonging to both current and also former customers were embroiled in the cyber attack, based on a statement from Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish. In somewhat of the silver lining, at this time the company does not really believe the online hackers stole any medical information or even payment information.

He wrote this company is notifying members separately if their information had been accessed.

“Anthem’s own associates’ private information – including my personal – was accessed during this security breach, ” this individual wrote. “We join you within your concern and frustration, and I assure you that any of us are working around the clock to do everything we can easily to further secure your computer data. ”

Swedish wrote the insurance provider has notified the FBI and has fully cooperated with their own investigation. He added this company has also brought upon cyber security firm Mandiant, the firm that uncovered ongoing cyber attacks through the People’s Libertarian Army in 2013. Despite these attempts, the company has not still identified the attacker.

USA TODAY reports this attack could impact as much as 80 million Anthem clients, double the number of payment cards impacted by the breach of Target this past year.

Although this statement feels all too familiar pursuing the string of recent hacks on companies which range from Sony to JP Morgan, the Wall Street Journal notes this breach varies from others because Anthem identified the breach itself and also quickly notified the public. Hopefully for customers, this marks a shift in exactly how companies will approach similar hacks in the foreseeable future.

The hack affected a variety of Anthem brands, which includes Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross in addition to Blue Shield, Blue Cross and also Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross in addition to Blue Shield, Amerigroup, Caremore, Unicare, Healthlink, and also DeCare.

The company has create a website and also a toll-free number (1-877-263-7995) for customers to gain access to updates and ask questions relevant to the hack. The company will also provide a credit monitoring in addition to identity protection service cost-free.

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