While you drive through Chick-Fil-A to pick up that chicken filet sandwich with a side of waffle fries and a drink, you probably aren’t thinking about one of the nation’s larges insurance providers, or your credit rating. But, maybe you should.
Within the last month the latest two corporate casualties to be attacked and hacked by cyber thieves are Chick-Fil-A and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.
A month ago, Chick-Fil-A released this statement telling its customers about the attack.
Chick-fil-A recently received reports of potential unusual activity involving payment cards used at a few of our restaurants. We take our obligation to protect customer information seriously, and we are working with leading IT security firms, law enforcement and our payment industry contacts to determine all of the facts.
We want to assure our customers we are working hard to investigate these events and will share additional facts as we are able to do so. If the investigation reveals that a breach has occurred, customers will not be liable for any fraudulent charges to their accounts — any fraudulent charges will be the responsibility of either Chick-fil-A or the bank that issued the card. If our customers are impacted, we will arrange for free identity protection services, including credit monitoring.
If you are concerned about your payment card transactions at a Chick-fil-A restaurant, please review the following frequently asked questions (“FAQ’s”). …
On February 4th, Anthem BCBS sent emails, like this, all across the country. 80 million Anthem customers had personal account information hacked.
Safeguarding your personal, financial and medical information is one of our top priorities, and because of that, we have state-of-the-art information security systems to protect your data. However, despite our efforts, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield was the target of a very sophisticated external cyber attack. These attackers gained unauthorized access to Anthem’s IT system and have obtained personal information from our current and former members such as their names, birthdays, medical IDs/social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information, including income data. Based on what we know now, there is no evidence that credit card or medical information (such as claims, test results or diagnostic codes) were targeted or compromised.
Once the attack was discovered, Anthem immediately made every effort to close the security vulnerability, contacted the FBI and began fully cooperating with their investigation. Anthem has also retained Mandiant, one of the world’s leading cybersecurity firms, to evaluate our systems and identify solutions based on the evolving landscape.
Anthem’s own associates’ personal information – including my own – was accessed during this security breach. We join you in your concern and frustration, and I assure you that we are working around the clock to do everything we can to further secure your data. …
Anthem says that personal information, birthdays, social security numbers, and birth dates were breeched.
Initial investigation indicates that the member data accessed included names, dates of birth, member ID/ social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and employment information.
Beyond the NSA spying on Americans and the Sony hacking story, in recent months, it appears cyber theft is the most common form of personal theft of the day.
In May of 2014, CNBC reported the U.S. is the most hacked nation on earth behind the U.K. And while they feel progress is being made in thwarting the problems, that may be little consolation for the 80 million Anthem customers.
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