Cybercriminals breach Aflac as part of hacking spree against US insurance industry


Cybercriminals have breached insurance giant Aflac, potentially stealing Social Security numbers, insurance claims and health information, the company said Friday, the latest in a spree of hacks against the insurance industry.

With billions of dollars in annual revenue and tens of millions of customers, Aflac is the biggest victim yet in the ongoing digital assault on US insurance companies that has the industry on edge and the FBI and private cyber experts scrambling to contain the fallout. Erie Insurance and Philadelphia Insurance Companies have also reported hacks this month, which in those cases have caused widespread disruptions to IT systems used to serve customers. All three insurance-company hacks are consistent with the techniques of a young and rampant cybercrime group known as Scattered Spider, people familiar the investigation tell CNN.

Read more…
Source: CNN News


Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.


Related:

  • Ransomware Attack Cripples Cosco Shipping Network – Report

    July 26, 2018

    A shipping giant is likely to run up in millions of dollars of additional costs after a ransomware attack apparently crippled its US network. The attack was against COSCO (China Ocean Shipping Company), which is a Chinese owned shipping giant. It comes after its larger shipping rival Maersk admitted in August 2017 that its operations had been impacted by ...

  • Hackers Breach Virginia Bank, Make Off With Millions

    July 25, 2018

    Hackers have compromised a bank in the United States twice in the past eight months and made off with millions of dollars. But the cyber attacks has resulted in a spat between the bank and its insurer provider which is refusing to fully cover the losses. The incident is a salient reminder of the online threat being ...

  • Emotet Malware Evolves Beyond Banking to Threat Delivery Service

    July 24, 2018

    The Emotet trojan has been popping up in the news for years: From widespread malspam infections of banking German targets in 2014, all the way up to the costly infection of a New Hampshire town’s computer network in July. And while the tricky Emotet malware first emerged targeting banking credentials, lately researchers have spotted the trojan ...

  • Massive Malspam Campaign Finds a New Vector for FlawedAmmyy RAT

    July 20, 2018

    A widespread spam campaign from the well-known financial criminal group TA505 is spreading the FlawedAmmyy RAT using a brand-new vector: Weaponized PDFs containing malicious SettingContent-ms files. The SettingContent-ms file format was introduced in Windows 10; it allows a user to create “shortcuts” to various Windows 10 setting pages. “All this file does is open the Control Panel ...

  • Singapore’s Largest Healthcare Group Hacked, 1.5 Million Patient Records Stolen

    July 20, 2018

    Singapore’s largest healthcare group, SingHealth, has suffered a massive data breach that allowed hackers to snatch personal information on 1.5 million patients who visited SingHealth clinics between May 2015 and July 2018. SingHealth is the largest healthcare group in Singapore with 2 tertiary hospitals, 5 national specialty , and eight polyclinics. According to an advisory released by Singapore’s Ministry ...

  • Cybercrooks slurp nearly $1m from Russian bank after pwning router at regional branch

    July 20, 2018

    Hackers stole almost $1m from a Russian bank earlier this month after breaching its network via an outdated router. PIR Bank was looted by the notorious MoneyTaker hacking group, according to Group-IB, the Moscow-based security firm called in by the bank to handle incident response. Funds were stolen on 3 July through the Russian Central Bank’s Automated ...