Cybercriminals Breach Aflac, Private Customer Data Could Be at Risk

AFLAC said on Friday that cybercriminals had violated its computer systems, potentially exposing some of the most personal data – including social security numbers and health care information – of an unknown number of Americans and marking the latest people in a recent online series against insurance companies.

The insurance supplier based in Columbus, Georgia, said that he had detected a suspicious activity on his American networks, had quickly responded and had managed to stop online intruders “in a few hours”. AFLAC added that his company remains operational and that its systems were not infected with ransomware.

AFLAC is the last and the largest insurance company to be so far targeted by cybercriminals. Philadelphia insurance And Erié insurance were affected by cyber attacks this month and have not yet resumed complete operations.

“This attack, like many insurance companies currently, was caused by a group of sophisticated cybercrime”, ” Aflac said in a press release Without providing details to support this complaint. “It was part of a cybercrime campaign against the insurance sector.”

AFLAC said it worked with external cybersecurity experts to investigate violation. He is determining which of his files has been potentially compromised and how many people may have been affected. Potentially affected files could include customer data such as social security numbers, insurance complaints, health information and other personal information. Information on employees, agents and other people involved in its American activities could also be compromised, said the company.

Although this investigation is still at its beginnings, AFLAC said that it seems that the attackers had access to its networks thanks to a social engineering attack, where instead of entering a computer system, the attackers will often appear as a authority, as a framework or a computer worker, to encourage an employee to hand over their legitimate connection diplomas.

John Hultquist, chief analyst of the intelligence group on the threats of Google, said that recent attacks on insurance companies “support all the characteristics” of the Dispersed spider cybercriminal groupwhich was linked to very publicized attacks against financial services, telecommunications and casinos and hotels of Las Vegas.

“Given the history of this player to focus on one sector, the insurance sector should be on high alert, in particular for social engineering regimes that target their assistance offices and call centers,” said Hultquist in a statement.

Although it remains to be determined exactly who has been assigned and how bad the damage could be, Aflac has taken the unoccupied measure to already offer free credit supervision, protection against identity theft and coverage of the medical shield for 24 months to customers who contact its call center at 855-361-0305.

AFLAC is the largest additional health insurance provider in the United States and has a global clientele of around 50 million people.