On February 4th, 2015, Anthem Inc., formally known as Wellpoint Inc., announced that social security numbers, names, dates of birth, member IDs, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and employment information for up to 80 million customers had been stolen. Anthem is the world's second-largest health insurer in the United States.While you may not recognize the name Anthem Inc, you may recognize some of the brands that they encompass that were affected by the breach, including:
- Amerigroup
- Anthem Blue Cross
- Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia
- Caremore
- DeCare
- Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield
- Healthlink
- Unicare
Anthem has hired Mandiant, a FireEye Company founded in 2004, to assist in remediation efforts. There has been no indication that the responsible party has been identified, but affected customers will be notified with a letter that they will receive in the mail in the coming weeks. From experience, I can say that Mandiant will be working diligently to detect, respond, and contain the threat that Anthem faces. I suspect that this will not be a recurring issue if the companies choose to maintain a business relationship.
