The recent cyber-attack on the second-largest health insurance company in the U.S., Anthem Insurance was allegedly pulled off by Chinese hackers. Now the attack, which I covered here has spread to Michigan. Emily Lawler at MLive is reporting that Michigan residents are caught up in the national healthcare insurance data breach.
The Anthem health insurance company compromised data includes an estimated 80 million people, of which 636,075 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan users. According to the article, some of the compromised information could have come from BCBSM customers. A BCBSM spokesperson told MLive there was a “strong possibility” some BCBSM customer data had been caught up in the data breach.
BCBSM is an affiliate of the compromised company, so the Michigan firm shared critical customer information with Anthem. The affiliation allowed the attackers to gain access to Michigan BCBSM users. Ms. Lawler cites information from Anthem’s initial investigation, which found that compromised Michigan personally identifiable information (PII) that could have been compromised includes names, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and employment information.
Reassuringly (snark) BCBSM and Michigan’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services have been monitoring the data breach and its potential effect on Michiganders. BCBSM External Affairs Manager Stephanie Beres told MLive numbers from Anthem say 636,075 Michigan residents are impacted. That includes 410,990 Anthem members, and 225,745 customers of Blue Cross Blue Shield, Ms. Beres said.
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Anthem is sending letters to those impacted their oopsie who will offer two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft repair. According to Anthem’s website AllClear ID will provide credit monitoring services. Those who think they may be affected are encouraged to visit a website Anthem has set up to distribute information about the hack, www.anthemfacts.com.
Related articles
- Connecticut bill requires insurers to encrypt personal data (newsday.com)
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.