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 Anthem disclosed the attack late Wednesday, saying unknown hackers
had penetrated a database with some 80 million records. The insurer
said it suspected they had stolen information belonging to tens of
millions of current and former customers as well as employees.
Attorneys general of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Arkansas
and North Carolina are looking into the breach, according to
representatives of their offices and internal documents.
California's Department of Insurance said it will review Anthem's
response to the data attack.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen asked Anthem Chief
Executive Joseph Swedish to provide by March 4 detailed information
about the cyberattack, the company's security practices and privacy
policies, according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Thursday.
"We hope and expect to work in close coordination with other
attorneys general," said Jaclyn Falkowski, a spokeswoman for Jepsen.
A source familiar with the probe told Reuters that a possible
connection to China was being investigated, and the Wall Street
Journal reported that people close to the investigation say some
tools and techniques used against Anthem were similar to ones used
in previous attacks linked to China.
The origin of cyber attacks is difficult to determine, China's
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said on Friday.
"Such careless identification of the relevant attacker clearly is
unreasonable," Hong told a news briefing in Beijing.
Late on Wednesday, the FBI said it was looking into the matter but
did not discuss suspects.
"As far as China being involved, I don’t know," said FBI spokesman
Paul Bresson. "I don’t think we know yet. Our investigation is
ongoing."
On Friday, Anthem officials are scheduled to brief the House Energy
and Commerce Committee on the breach.
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"This latest intrusion into patients' personal information
underscores the increasing magnitude and evolving nature of cyber
crimes," Fred Upton, the committee's chairman, said in a statement.
"Every business is at risk and American consumers are anxious."
President Barack Obama's cybersecurity adviser, Michael Daniel,
speaking at a seminar in Washington, called the data breach "quite
concerning" and warned consumers to change their passwords and
monitor their credit scores.
Connecticut has worked with other states to investigate some of the
biggest U.S. data breaches reported to date, including ones at
retailers Target Corp and Home Depot Inc. The office of
Connecticut's attorney general said Anthem has agreed to two years
of credit monitoring for customers there.
A representative for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
declined to say whether he planned to work with Connecticut but
noted his office had contacted Anthem to discuss protecting its
customers in the wake of the data breach.
A representative with FireEye Inc, which was investigating the
attack on behalf of Anthem, declined comment.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld. Additional reporting by Caroline
Humer, Jim Finkle, Joseph Menn and Deena Beasley, and Michael
Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Steve Orlofsky, Ken
Wills and Clarence Fernandez)
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