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Both said a third-party vendor, PBI Research Services, was
affected in a data theft hack, providing a path for the hackers
to then steal data from Calpers and Genworth. PBI could not be
reached for comment.
Calpers said on June 6, 2023, PBI told them of a “vulnerability”
in their MOVEit Transfer software that allowed hackers to
download “our data” without specifying how many people were
impacted. News reports said information from more than 700,000
Calpers members and retirees was taken.
The MOVEit software is widely-used by organisations around the
world to share sensitive data.
Genworth Financial was harder hit, saying personal information
of nearly 2.5 million to 2.7 million of its customers was
breached.
"The personal information of a significant number of insurance
policyholders or other customers of its life insurance
businesses was unlawfully accessed," Genworth said.
From U.S. government departments to the UK's telecom regulator
and energy giant Shell, a range of victims have emerged since
Burlington, Massachusetts-based Progress Software found the
security flaw in its MOVEit Transfer product last month.
The insurer said it is working to ensure "protection services"
are provided to the impacted individuals, according to a
regulatory filing.
Data taken from Calpers included members' first and last name,
date of birth and social security number. It serves more than 2
million members in its retirement system.
The MOVEit hack has hit several state and federal agencies. Last
week, the U.S. Department of Energy got ransom requests from the
Russia-linked extortion group Cl0p at both its nuclear waste
facility and scientific education facility that were recently
hit in a global hacking campaign.
Data was compromised at the two DOE entities after hackers
breached their systems through a security flaw in MOVEit
Transfer.
The wide-ranging impact of the hack shows how even the most
security-minded federal agencies are struggling to defend
against ransomware attacks. Ransomware gangs typically scour for
such widely-used tools.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Chris Sanders in
Washington DC; Editing by Maju Samuel and Daniel Wallis)
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