18,500 Anthem Customers Exposed By Contractor
Healthcare and Public Health
More than 18,500 customers’ personal data may have been exposed by an Anthem contractor, CNBC reported.
An employee emailed a file with Anthem customers’ information to his personal email address, the consulting firm LaunchPoint Ventures discovered, according to the report. LaunchPoint was investigating the employee for identity theft at the time, CNBC reported.
The emailed data included protected health information, primarily Social Security and Medicare identification numbers. LaunchPoint notified Anthem June 14; Anthem notified the Department of Health and Human Services July 24.
“LaunchPoint has terminated the employee, hired a forensic expert to investigate, and is working with law enforcement,” a company statement said. “LaunchPoint is reinforcing existing policies and protocols and is evaluating additional safeguards to prevent any similar incidents from occurring in the future.”
The company is offering victims two years of credit monitoring and identity theft restoration services.