Η violation of the insurer company Anthem is probably the biggest hack in a health care provider we've seen, as 80 has been reportedly affected by millions of people with their personal data exposed to unauthorized individuals.
While a clear picture has not yet been formed since pieces of the puzzle are still being collected from them researchers, the first conclusion seems to point to China as the place of origin of the attack.
A government-sponsored project or a crime project aimed at financial gain?
Η Anthem is the second-largest US insurance provider and offers services to an impressive number of customers, including workers in sensitive areas such as the defense of the country and government organizations in general.
Northrop Grumman Corporation, a global aerospace and defense technology company, uses Anthem's services to cover its employees' insurance. Anthem's list of customers also includes the Boeing Company, which also has a defense unit.
With this information, the scenario of a targeted attack by a foreign government seems to make sense.
In an official statement of the incident, Joseph Swedish, Anthem's chairman and CEO, said the leaked customer data included names, birthdays, medical IDs, SSNs, addresses, e-mail addresses, and details about employment and income.
He called the breach a "highly sophisticated external attack," suggesting that a group of highly skilled hackers, backed by wealthy pconditions may be behind the hack.
According to The Wall Street Journal, researchers say that Anthem's hack was carried out using malware that seems to have been used almost exclusively by Chinese cyberspies.
The attack on Anthem's systems is not an amateur job, that's for sure.
References from many newsgraphics channels report that Anthem data stored on the system was not encrypted, highlighting the fact that attackers could access plaintext files.
Encryption is used to protect stored information as well as during transfer from client to server. This ensures that unauthorized people can not use the information even if they are in their hands or at least they can make less use of them.
But according to Anthem, there was unauthorized activity on administrator log-in credentials beginning December 10, 2014, which continued sporadically through January 27, 2015. research of the company showed that log-in credentials from multiple administrators had changed hands.
