Health Insurer Anthem Rocked By Hackers, 80 Million Customer Records Stolen
Last year was a busy one for hackers, and it doesn't look like 2015 will be much different. The latest to get hit is Anthem Inc., the second-largest health insurer in the United States. While investigators are still determining the extent of the breach, it's said that hackers broke into a database containing personal information for around 80 million of the company's customers and staff members.
Anthem believes that "tens of millions" of records were stolen from its database, making this one of the largest data breaches ever disclosed by a healthcare firm. Personal information that was compromised included names, birthdays, addresses, and Social Security numbers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
On the plus side, it doesn't appear that hackers were able to steal medical or financial information, including credit card numbers or bank accounts. And so far, investigators haven't found any evidence to suggest that any stolen data has been sold on the underground market.
There's still quite a bit Anthem doesn't know about the attack, such as exactly how many people were affected or how the hackers were able to get their hands on the necessary identification information to access the database in the first place.
Once all that is sorted out, Anthem will contact those affected via email and letter. The company is also in the process of setting up a website to offer credit monitoring for those affected.