US health insuring company Anthem Inc. on Wednesday informed its customers and employees about the severe cyber hack on its computers, leading to stealing of more than 80 million data.
“Anthem was the target of a very sophisticated external cyber attack. These attackers gained unauthorized access to Anthem’s IT system and have obtained personal information from our current and former members such as their names, birthdays, medical IDs/social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information, including income data,” according to the company’s letter to its members.
The second largest American health insurer said that they have no evidence to support that the hack has targeted or compromised credit card or medical information, like test results, claims, or diagnostic codes.
The company, however, didn’t offer details on how the hackers breached into their systems or who were these cyber attackers.
Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that they were unaware of the Anthem breach and is probing into the matter.
Issuing a statement on Thursday, the probing agency said, “Individuals contacted by the company should take steps to monitor and safeguard their personally identifiable information and report any suspected instances of identity theft to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.”
The FBI also hailed Anthem for notifying the probing agency on time.
According to FBI, timely notification of any type of intrusion is very much required as there is huge possibility of cyber criminals quickly destroying critical evidence that are required for their identification by the law enforcement agencies.
Anthem said soon after it discovered the hack, it rushed into action to secure further vulnerability and contacted the FBI.
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