Creditnet News Story
Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield security breach opens hundreds of thousands to risk
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
By William Davis
A website upgrade at Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield has put hundreds of thousands of applicants at risk of having their identities stolen.
After outsourcing site maintenance to a third party, Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield opened about 230,000 pending applications - which were meant to be secured - to anyone that knew where to find them. According to a report from the consumer identity theft protection website eSecurity Planet, the glitch remained open for five months, and the insurer had no idea that it happened.
The company only realized its gaffe when it received a class-action lawsuit from the affected customers, then corrected the problem immediately, the site said. An internal investigation at Anthem found that one of the lawyers was able to access his client's information numerous times, and had access to her medical records and Social Security number. The insurer is offering a free credit monitoring service to all affected members for a year.
The company told Insurance News Net that the error allowed "a small number of individuals" to access the information "for a relatively short period of time," and noted that the majority of the unauthorized access was committed by the lawyers who filed the suit.
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