US Health Insurer Anthem Suffers Massive Data Breach

An anonymous reader writes Anthem, the second-largest health insurer in the United States, has suffered a data breach that may turn out to be the largest health care breach to date, as the compromised database holds records of some 80 million individuals. Not much is known about how the attack was discovered, how it unfolded and who might be behind it, but the breach has been confirmed by the company's CEO Joseph Swedish in a public statement, in which he says they were the victims of a "very sophisticated external cyber attack." The company has notified the FBI, and has hired Mandiant to evaluate their systems and identify solutions to secure them. Swedish said the breach is extensive: the vulnerable data included "names, birthdays, medical IDs/social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information, including income data," though "no credit card or medical information, such as claims, test results or diagnostic codes were targeted or compromised." (Also covered by Reuters.)