Posted: April 8, 2015 | Written by Aja Sanders
One of the health care providers for Riverside Community College District, Anthem BlueCross, was recently the target of a strategic data breach.
Anthem called it a “sophisticated external cyber attack” in its apology letter that was sent to members almost immediately after the cyber attack was discovered.
During the March 17 RCCD Board of Trustees meeting, Debra Yorba, vice president of Keenan and Associates announced that at least nine faculty members were affected by the attack.
Sylvia Thomas, interim vice chancellor of Diversity and Human Resources said the faculty members that were mentioned during the board meeting were mostly out-of-state retirees.Thomas also said that Anthem offered the faculty members two years of ID protection, free of charge.
Anthem released a statement on its website which encouraged all Anthem members to file their taxes as soon as possible in order to prevent their tax returns from being accessed or stolen.
Members’ names, Social Security numbers, street addresses and other personal information were accessed during the cyber attack. In the apology letter published by Anthem, the insurance company ensured its members that it is in full cooperation with an investigation led by the FBI.
There has been no one person or entity that was identified for the responsibility of the attack, however, investigators believe that the attacks began in December 2014.
This is not the first data breach that Anthem has experienced. Anthem’s Blue Shield and BlueCross experienced a data breach in August 2009. The insurance company sent a similar letter to members stating that they were taking action and investigating the issue.
