NEW HAVEN – A Danielson man filed a federal class action lawsuit against Anthem Blue Cross Insurance, charging them with not securing customers personal information, which lead to the theft of data which consisted of customer’s personal information.
Frederick Ruhlemann’s attorneys announced the suit, which was filed against Anthem and its affiliates. The suit claims, “Anthem’s inadequate security permitted cyber thieves to access and steal the personal identifying and financial information including Social Security Numbers of potentially 80 million consumers nationwide,” said David N. Rosen, Ruhlemann’s attorney in a statement.
“Mr. Ruhlemann and the other members of this class provided their personal information to Anthem with the understanding and contractual promise that Anthem would safeguard the information,” said Rosen. “Unfortunately for customers of Anthem, their personal financial, and possibly even sensitive health information, was left vulnerable to cyber thieves.”
The complaint says the personal information disclosed in the Anthem breach was not encrypted.
The company said stolen records contained names, birthdays, addresses,and Social Security numbers of its customers and employees, but don’t appear to involve medical information or financial details such as credit-card or bank-account numbers.
It’s believed that 80 million current and former Anthem customers nationwide had their records stolen.
The suit also claims that Anthem waited too long to notify consumers of the breach. The complaint said Anthem knew the data was stolen on January 29 and possibly earlier, but did not announce it public until February 4.
Anthem released a statement on the lawsuit Monday afternoon:
We do not comment on pending litigation.
To date, in working with the FBI, we have found no evidence that the cyber attackers have shared or sold any of our members’ data and there is no evidence that fraud has occurred against our members, including fraudulent tax returns.
Any current or former members may visit www.AnthemFacts.com to learn how to access free identity protection services. These services include:
Identity Theft Repair Assistance: Should a member experience fraud, an investigator will do the work to recover financial losses, restore the member’s credit, and ensure the member’s identity is returned to its proper condition. This assistance will cover any fraud that has occurred since the incident first began.
Credit Monitoring: At no cost, members may also enroll in credit monitoring, which alerts consumers when banks and creditors use their identity to open new credit accounts.
Child Identity Protection: Child-specific identity protection services will also be offered to any members with children insured through their Anthem-affiliated plan.
