Another major data breach at healthinsurer affects millions

It is a top story across the country. The nation's second largest health insurance company has been targeted by what it is calling a very sophisticated cyber attack. Anthem Insurance says millions of customers' personal data was hacked, including birth dates, Social Security numbers, and income information. Credit card information was not stolen, and there's no evidence medical information like test results was compromised. To get a little more perspective on this, we're joined by Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert with the company HotShield. Hotspot Shield. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. This company has a lot of customers. What should you do now if you're one of them?

Yeah, the Social Security number is in fact the key to the kingdom, and when criminals get a hold of that, they use that information to open up new lines of credit just like a consumer would. So what's really important that consumers do right now is to make their Social Security number useless to a thief, and the way you do that is two ways. You can invest in identity theft protection, which is always a good investment before and/or after a breach, and/or get yourself a credit freeze. So a credit freeze costs anywhere from $3 to $15 per credit bureau, and there's 3 credit bureaus. And once your credit is frozen, it makes that social useless to a criminal.

So anyone who is a customer of this company should do that right now. I mean, otherwise you really have no way of knowing when and if your Social Security number is being used.

Correct. I recommend that anybody who is a, um, a customer of this company, and really anybody who has a social for that matter— the fact is that there have been over a billion records compromised in the past decade, and many of them have been Social Security numbers. So everybody is at risk in one way, shape, or form. So getting identity theft protection and really a credit freeze is the best thing to do right now and in the future.

Mr. Siciliano, are these companies doing enough to protect their customers? —information.

You know, it's unfortunate when things like this happen. And while if you were to ask the companies themselves, are they doing enough, they would tell you all the different things that they're doing. And many of them are spending upwards of millions annually on the hardware, software, and information security professionals to make sure that this in fact doesn't happen. But the fact is, it does happen because we're humans and we're flawed. And if a human on the inside gets an email that looks like it's coming from, say, HR, and they click a link in it, then that in fact could infect the network. And some hacks just cannot be prevented.

And this one is even more dangerous for consumers, right? I mean, we've heard so many of the hacks of credit card numbers, but you can cancel that credit card. Yeah. Well, you see, that's the thing.

You know, a, um, a credit card number can be changed, it can be canceled, right? You can pay attention to your statements, but a Social Security number can't be changed really. In the end, you wouldn't know that new lines of credit were opened up on under your name and over your credit unless you actually were denied credit or checked your credit report and saw that these lines of credit were open, or bill collectors call you. This is why it's essential that consumers, you know, be proactive and get a credit freeze and/or identity theft protection.

Illinois Attorney General is testifying on Capitol Hill today, Lisa Madigan, calling for a federal law to require companies to do a better job of informing customers of credit card or data breaches. Do you agree with that? Do we need a law like that?

So right now, data breach notification is at the state level, which means that 49 states essentially have passed laws requiring companies whose clients' information has been compromised to notify with a lot of different variables and identity theft protection and so forth. And the law that's being proposed will be federal, so it will be across the board. And any legislation that can be put into place that can protect consumers in the end, I think is a good thing.

Robert Siciliano, thank you so much for your advice. If you want more tips and information, you can visit hotspotshield.com for a link, or to watch this segment again, hear the advice and the warnings, log on to wgntv.com/midday.