Late Wednesday, February 5, Anthem, Inc. announced that approximately 80 million current and former policy holders’ personal information was compromised by a “very sophisticated external cyber attack,” Joe Swedish, CEO of Anthem, Inc.
Anthem says the information stolen included names, birthdays, social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information– including some income data. Currently, there is no evidence that credit card or medical information was targeted or compromised (anthemfacts.com)
Individuals who may have been impacted are advised to be aware of scam email campaigns targeting current and former Anthem members. The scam emails are designed to capture personal information, look like they are from Anthem and include a “click here” link for credit monitoring. These emails are NOT from Anthem.
Anthem has advised individuals to:
- NOT click on any links in the email
- DO NOT reply to the email or reach out to senders in any way
- DO NOT supply any information on the website that may open, if you clicked on a link within the scam email
- DO NOT open any attachments that arrive in the mail
Anthem has set up a specific website, www.anthemfacts.com, to address all concerns regarding the data breach. Both current and former members can call this toll-free number 1-877-263-7995 if they have questions related to the incident.
Current and former members of Anthem will be contacted via mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service about the cyber attack with specific information on how to enroll in credit monitoring. Affected members will receive free credit monitoring and ID protection services.
Source: Anthem, Inc.