The Detroit News
Anthem Inc., the biggest U.S. health insurer, said hackers obtained data on tens of millions of current and former customers and employees in a sophisticated attack that has led to a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe.
The information compromised includes names, birthdates, social security numbers, street and e-mail addresses and employee data, including income, Anthem said in an email. The company will notify customers who were affected and provide credit and identify-theft monitoring services for free, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Swedish said in a letter to members.
“As soon as we learned about the attack, we immediately made every effort to close the security vulnerability, contacted the FBI and began fully cooperating with their investigation,” Anthem said. The Indianapolis-based company, formerly known as WellPoint, didn’t provide information on how the breach occurred or when it was discovered.
The attack is on a similar scale to hacks of customer data from Target Corp. and Home Depot Inc. last year in terms of the number of people affected. “This attack is another reminder of the persistent threats we face,” U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who leads the Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.
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