Medical and financial data belonging to as many as 11 million Premera Blue Cross customers may have been exposed in a breach discovered on the same day as the Anthem breach, the health insurance company announced Tuesday.
Premera discovered the breach on January 29, 2015. Working with both Mandiant and the FBI to investigate the attack, the company discovered that the initial attack occurred on May 5, 2014. Premera Blue Cross and Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska were both impacted, in addition to affiliate brands Vivacity and Connexion Insurance Solutions. Additionally, other Blue Cross Blue Shield customers in Washington and Alaska may have been affected by the breach.
A broad range of customer and applicant data may have been exposed in the attack, ranging from medical records and bank account information to Social Security numbers and dates of birth going back thirteen years. While Premera says it does not have evidence that the data was removed from the system or “used inappropriately,” the company is beginning to mail letters to affected customers today and is offering two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
Premera is the second health insurance provider to announce a major breach this year. On the same date as Premera, Anthem discovered a breach that affected nearly 80 million customers whose Social Security numbers were exposed in an attacked that began in April 2014. Anthem announced its breach on February 13, more than a month before Premera's announcement today. Unlike in the Premera breach, medical data and banking information were not believed to have been exposed in the Anthem breach. Both Premera and Anthem described the attacks against their systems as “very sophisticated," and some believe the attacks may be linked to a state-sponsored attack out of China.
A wave of phishing attacks followed the announcement of the Anthem breach. In light of this, Premera is stressing that the company will not email or call customers about the breach. To protect against phishing attacks, Premera members should avoid opening attachments and links or replying to emails about the breach.
Based in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, Premera is one of the largest health insurance providers in the Pacific Northwest, with $7.6 billion in revenue in 2013 and 1.8 million members in Washington and Alaska.
