If you have a health insurance plan through Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, your personal information may be vulnerable to a data breach.
According to Premera, about 650,000 current and former Alaskans are among the 11 million people potentially affected by a cyberattack of the health plan company.
A Premera press release issued today says attackers may have gained access to customers’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, mailing addresses and bank account information.
“This is data going back to 2002, so this affects current and former members, in addition to other individuals and organizations with whom we may have done business,” says Eric Earling, vice president of communications at Premera Blue Cross based in Washington.
Earling says Premera is the largest health plan in Alaska. It has about 110,000 current members in the state.
Mila Cosgrove is human resources director for the City and Borough of Juneau, which uses Premera for its employee health plan. She says the city plans to notify the roughly 1,600 city employees and family members covered under Premera about the cyberattack.
“We are, of course, concerned that this has occurred, but I have no reason to believe that Premera was negligent or lax in their handling of the information. I think this is a reality of the business environment we find ourselves in,” Cosgrove says.
The total number of Alaskans affected also includes 80,000 former and current state workers. The State of Alaska used Premera for the state health plan from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2009.
Premera discovered the attack at the end of January and notified the FBI, which is involved in the investigation. Aside from the press release, Earling says Premera notified employers and health brokers about the cyberattack. It also plans on mailing letters to notify everyone potentially affected.
Premera’s offering two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. Customers can sign up on premeraupdate.com or by calling 1-800-768-5817.
