More than 3.7 million members of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia may have had personal information exposed in a recent data breach, Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens disclosed Friday.
The breach occurred at Anthem Inc., the parent of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, sometime after Dec. 10 and before Jan. 27. Anthem said hackers evaded several security layers to reach a database containing information on about 80 million people, including current and former policyholders in Georgia.
Compromised information included names, Social Security numbers, health identification numbers, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, employment information and income data, Hudgens said.
Experts say access to Social Security numbers can be used to obtain credit cards and file false tax returns. Credit card or confidential health information, however, did not appear to be a part of the recent breach, the insurance commissioner said.
Hudgens’ release did not say if there was evidence of any Georgia members’ information being misused.
The breach also affected members of Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Care Plans of Georgia, Amerigroup Corp./AMGP Georgia Managed Care Co. Inc. and Greater Georgia Life Insurance Co.
“Anthem has begun notifying their current and former members whose information has been accessed, and I strongly urge Georgians to take advantage of the free credit monitoring and identity protection services being offered by Anthem,” the commissioner said in a statement.
The company is providing protection services for 24 months through AllClear ID, at 1-877-263-7995 or at https://anthem.allclearid.com.
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