Data breach

I just copied this alert and am posting it here in case any reader is insured through Anthem as administrator of Blue Cross Blue Shield in the affected states of California, New York and "a number of other states," which were not named.



Health insurer Anthem admitted on Wednesday that personal information of customers and employees was stolen by "sophisticated" hackers.

Although Anthem, which offers Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in California, New York and a number of other states, did not say how many customers and employees were affected, the Wall Street Journal reported that the number was around 80 million.

The stolen information includes names, birthdays, medical IDs, social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information, such as income information. However, neither credit card nor medical information, such as claims, test results or diagnostic codes, was lost.

Anthem contacted the FBI about the breach and hired FireEye's Mandiant unit, the same firm that investigated the Sony breach, to evaluate the insurer's systems and identify security improvements.