Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Digital Health
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Unwell in America
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Insurance
March 17, 2015 01:00 AM

Cyberattack exposes data of 11 million Premera Blue Cross members

Adam Rubenfire
Joseph Conn
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Story updated at 8 p.m. EDT

    Premera Blue Cross, a health plan in the Pacific Northwest, was hit with the second-biggest cyberattack in healthcare industry history, exposing the personal, financial and medical information of more than 11 million customers.

    The Mountlake Terrace, Wash.-based company discovered the attack on Jan. 29, 2015. An investigation revealed that the initial attack occurred May 5, 2014. The breach affected Premera Blue Cross, Premera Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alaska, and Premera affiliate brands Vivacity and Connexion Insurance Solutions.

    Premera said that the company has not been able to determine if any data was removed from the company's systems and that there's no evidence records have been used inappropriately.

    The revelation comes six weeks after Anthem, the nation's largest investor-owned Blues licensee, disclosed that hackers had stolen the records of nearly 80 million from its information technology system.

    Information exposed in the hack dates to 2002. The company said the records could include members' names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, member identification numbers, bank account information and claims information, including clinical information.

    As with the Anthem hack, the Premera breach affects some customers of other Blues plans that participate in the national, reciprocal claims payment network called BlueCard, a Premera spokeswoman confirmed. The network is often used for members who travel out of their insurer's service area for care.

    Premera Blue Cross is beginning to mail letters to affected customers offering two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection. The company also has established a call center and and a website, www.premeraupdate.com, dedicated to information about the breach.

    "We at Premera take this issue seriously and sincerely regret the concern it may cause," Premera CEO Jeff Roe said in a statement. "As much as possible, we want to make this event our burden, not that of the affected individuals, by making services available today to help protect people's information."

    If the ongoing investigation confirms that no data was removed from Premera's system, customers could be less at risk than Anthem's customers. But the company may be offering protection to customers because it can't be sure that is the case, said Mac McMillan, a healthcare security expert and founder of CynergisTek, an Austin, Texas-based security consultancy.

    “It could very well be they can't prove the negative,” McMillan said. “They can't disprove that these people had access to that information.”

    It's possible but not likely that the individuals could have downloaded the data from Premera's servers but left no evidence that they removed the data, MacMillan said. Stealing data without leaving a trace is difficult, he said, because usually only high-level administrators have the ability to eliminate audit trails.

    Hackers also may have infiltrated the system without the intention of stealing data, McMillan said. Cyberattackers sometimes look for insecure systems and manipulate them to create bots that can be used in other cyberattacks, he said.

    Premera has worked closely with the FBI and Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, to investigate and remove the "infection created by the attack," the company said. An FBI spokeswoman said in a statement that Premera “quickly” notified the law enforcement agency about the attack but declined to give a specific time frame.

    In the Anthem hack, the initial investigation indicated that members' bank or clinical records were not exposed. The inclusion of that information in the Premera breach makes it particularly disconcerting, said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a San Diego based not-for-profit organization that pioneered research into the field of medical identity theft.

    “The recent spate of advanced medical breaches show us that the word is out about the value of medical data, and the sophisticated level of criminals making these attacks,” Dixon said in a statement. “Patients need to be prepared and educated about both medical ID theft and phishing, and providers need to be honest about the risk of medical forms of ID theft.”

    Cyberattacks are one of the least common ways that protected health information is exposed, but the episodes typically involve significantly bigger numbers of records.

    Nearly three-quarters of the records exposed in healthcare breaches reported to HHS have been linked to cyberattacks, even though those attacks account for less than 10% of the breaches, according to a Modern Healthcare analysis of HHS data.

    “(Hackers) clearly have an eye on these types of organizations who hold financial information, but also very sensitive healthcare information,” said Paul Bantick, an underwriter for cybersecurity insurer Beazley, which also provides services for organizations responding to attacks.

    “The best way for these organizations to mitigate the damage,” Bantick said, “is to respond and contain it as best as you can.”

    Follow Adam Rubenfire on Twitter: @arubenfire

    Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    Clawbacks
    Insurance companies ramp up efforts to claw back money from providers
    Feds take aim at prior authorization
    Feds take aim at prior authorization
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Daily Finance Newsletter: Sign up to receive daily news and data that has a direct impact on the business and financing of healthcare.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Digital Health
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Unwell in America
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top 25 Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing