Health insurer Anthem Inc. on Wednesday said hackers broke into a database containing personal information for tens of millions of customers and employees in what is considered the largest data breach involving a major U.S. health insurer.
The nation’s second largest health insurer said the breach didn’t involve medical information or financial details such as credit card or bank account numbers. But the attackers gained unauthorized access to information such as names, birthdays, medical IDs, social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information, including income and salary data.
Anthem, which offers coverage in Westchester and Fairfield counties, said it immediately reported the attacks to the FBI and retained Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, to evaluate its systems and identify ways to prevent future breaches.
The Wall Street Journal reported the number of customers affected could be as many as 80 million.
“I want to personally apologize to each of you for what happened, as I know you expect us to protect your information,” said Joseph R. Swedish, Anthem’s president and CEO, in a statement. “We will continue to do everything in our power to make our systems and security processes better and more secure, and hope that we can earn back your trust and confidence in Anthem.”
Anthem is offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services for those who have been affected.
It reported the impacted brands/plans include Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Amerigroup, Caremore, Unicare, Healthlink and DeCare.
For more information or questions related to the incident, call 877-263-7995 or visit AnthemFacts.com.
