Blue Shield of California recently suffered potential data breach when one of its vendors recently became aware of an unauthorized user access to its data systems. Potentially affected information includes names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.
Unauthorized user access and data breach
As per OCR data breach output, 20,764 individuals were possibly affected.
No Blue Shield data systems were impacted. Misused log-in credentials for certain Blue Shield customer service representatives have resulted in to the incident.
“We are working internally and with our vendor to improve our overall security procedures in order to provide additional protections for your personal information,” explained the notification letter signed by Blue Shield Chief Privacy Officer Molly McCoy Esq., CIPP/US.
According to the Molly McCoy:
I’m writing to provide you information on the steps we are taking to protect you and your information moving forward.
In addition, and to help protect your identity, we are offering a complimentary one year membership in Experian’s® ProtectMyID® Alert. While we have no indication that specific personal information about you has been misused, this product helps detect possible misuse of your personal information and provides you with superior identity protection support focused on immediate identification and resolution of identity theft.
Once your enrollment in ProtectMyID is complete, you should carefully review your credit report for inaccurate or suspicious items. If you have any questions about ProtectMyID, need help understanding something on your credit report, or suspect that an item on your credit report may be fraudulent, please contact Experian’s customer care team.
Alertsec strengthens security
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Organizations, especially corporate giants, have to have an information security policy in place that proves they have taken the necessary steps and measures to safeguard the information they gathered. If these policies are not adhered to, the regulators may prosecute.
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