Latest news with #data breach
CNA
15 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
Insurer Aflac investigating possible data leak after cyberattack
Health and life insurer Aflac on Friday said it is investigating a breach on its U.S. network that may have exposed customers' personal information, making it the latest insurance provider to be targeted in a cyberattack. Aflac said the attack was identified on June 12 and carried out by a sophisticated cybercrime group. An Aflac spokesperson told Reuters that the characteristics of the incident were consistent with Scattered Spider, a hacking group that has been around since May 2022 and has a reputation for targeting multiple companies in a single industry in waves. Earlier this week, Google's chief threat analyst warned the insurance industry to be on high alert from attacks from Scattered Spider. The group is also reportedly behind recent outages at Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY) and Erie Indemnity. The group's specialty is identity-based tactics through methods like scamming help desks to reset credentials and bypassing multi-factor authentication, said Steve Cagle, CEO at healthcare security firm Clearwater. The Aflac spokesperson said the company's review of the attack was in early stages and it cannot disclose how many customers were affected or how long the investigation would take. The company offers accident and pet insurance plans in the U.S. and Japan and manages personal, medical and financial data of more than 50 million policyholders. The attack potentially impacted files containing personal information of Aflac's customers, such as social security numbers and health-related details. The insurer said it was able to stop the intrusion within hours and has reached out to third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident. The company added that it can continue to provide its services as usual while it responds to the security breach.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Insurer Aflac investigating possible data leak after cyberattack
By Puyaan Singh and Christy Santhosh (Reuters) -Health and life insurer Aflac on Friday said it is investigating a breach on its U.S. network that may have exposed customers' personal information, making it the latest insurance provider to be targeted in a cyberattack. Aflac said the attack was identified on June 12 and carried out by a sophisticated cybercrime group. An Aflac spokesperson told Reuters that the characteristics of the incident were consistent with Scattered Spider, a hacking group that has been around since May 2022 and has a reputation for targeting multiple companies in a single industry in waves. Earlier this week, Google's chief threat analyst warned the insurance industry to be on high alert from attacks from Scattered Spider. The group is also reportedly behind recent outages at Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY) and Erie Indemnity. The group's specialty is identity-based tactics through methods like scamming help desks to reset credentials and bypassing multi-factor authentication, said Steve Cagle, CEO at healthcare security firm Clearwater. The Aflac spokesperson said the company's review of the attack was in early stages and it cannot disclose how many customers were affected or how long the investigation would take. The company offers accident and pet insurance plans in the U.S. and Japan and manages personal, medical and financial data of more than 50 million policyholders. The attack potentially impacted files containing personal information of Aflac's customers, such as social security numbers and health-related details. The insurer said it was able to stop the intrusion within hours and has reached out to third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident. The company added that it can continue to provide its services as usual while it responds to the security breach. Last year, UnitedHealth's Change unit was breached by a hacking group called ALPHV, or "BlackCat", in one of the worst hacks to hit the U.S. healthcare sector.
Daily Mail
15 hours ago
- Daily Mail
'Mother of all data breaches' sees Internet users urged to act after Apple and Google passwords are exposed
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered what the call the 'mother of all breaches' with the discovery of a collection of 30 databases that contain over 16 billion individual records, including passwords, for government accounts as well as social media log ins for Apple, Google, Facebook, Telegram, and others. Some of the datasets had vague names such as 'logins' or 'credentials', which made it hard for the team to figure out exactly what they contained but some gave clues about where the data came from. According to the researchers, the records were most likely compiled by cybercriminals using various info-stealing malware, though they noted that some data may also have been collected by so-called 'white hat' hackers. Also known as ethical hackers, 'white hat' hackers were security professionals who use their manipulating skills to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in computer systems, networks, and software - with the permission of the system's owner. The team at Cybernews, which found the records, said the information available to the wider Internet was only briefly, before it was locked down, but it's not possible to determine who owned the databases. With over 5.5 billion people worldwide using the Internet, researchers warned that a staggering number of individuals probably had some of their accounts compromised. Users across the globe were urged to change their passwords immediately to protect their data from falling into the hands of cybercriminals. Researchers said: 'The inclusion of both old and recent info-stealer logs makes this data particularly dangerous for organizations lacking multi-factor authentication or credential hygiene practices.' Cybernews noted that its researchers identified a database of 184 million records that was previously uncovered in May, found by data-breach hunter and security researcher Jeremiah Fowler. The security site said: 'It barely scratches the top 20 of what the team discovered. Most worryingly, researchers claim new massive datasets emerge every few weeks, signaling how prevalent info-stealer malware truly is.' The May discovery not only contained secure login data for millions of private citizens, but also had stolen account information connected to multiple governments around the world. While looking at a small sample of 10,000 of these stolen accounts, researcher Fowler found 220 email addresses with .gov domains, linking them to over 29 countries, including the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, China, India, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Fowler told WIRED: 'This is probably one of the weirdest ones I've found in many years. 'As far as the risk factor here, this is way bigger than most of the stuff I find, because this is direct access into individual accounts. This is a cybercriminal's dream working list.' In total, Fowler discovered 47 gigabytes of data with sensitive information for accounts on sites including Instagram, Microsoft, Netflix, PayPal, Roblox, and Discord. The best action to take to protect your accounts would be to change the passwords and activate Two-Factor Authentication, which added another layer of security to logging in by sending a secure code to your phone or email. The unprotected database was managed by World Host Group, a web-hosting and domain name provider founded in 2019. Once Fowler confirmed that the exposed information was genuine, he reported the breach to World Host Group, which shut down access to the database. World Host Group's Seb de Lemos told WIRED: 'It appears a fraudulent user signed up and uploaded illegal content to their server.' Fowler added that 'the only thing that makes sense' is that the breach was the work of a cybercriminal because there's no other way to gain that much access to information from so many servers around the world. The cybersecurity expert warned that the breach also posed a major national security risk. Exploiting government email accounts could allow hackers and foreign agents access to sensitive or even top-secret systems. The stolen data could also be used as part of a larger phishing campaign, using one person's hacked account to gain private information from other potential victims.
Bloomberg
15 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Aflac Reports Potential Leak of Personal Data in Cyber Breach
By and Jake Bleiberg Save Aflac Inc. said a recent cybersecurity breach could have given intruders unauthorized access to customers' personal information, including Social Security numbers, as well as health and claims data. The insurer also said Friday it contained the hack within hours of its discovery on June 12 and had hired cybersecurity experts to address the breach.
CTV News
16 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
WestJet cyberattack remains unresolved one week in, but operations unaffected
Passengers are seen in the WestJet check-in area at Pearson International Airport, in Toronto, Saturday, June 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov WestJet says a cyberattack that began last week remains unresolved, as questions linger about the nature and fallout of the breach. The country's second-largest airline says it is working to assess whether sensitive data or customers' personal information was compromised after hackers accessed its internal systems. An online advisory says the attack, which was detected late last week, has not affected operations but that some customers may run into 'intermittent interruptions or errors' on WestJet's website and app. Spokesman Josh Yeats says investigations in collaboration with law enforcement are ongoing, but the company has not specified the type of the incident, such as a malware or ransomware attack. The breach at the Alberta-based airline arrived just ahead of foreign leaders, who gathered last weekend for the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., though no direct link to the event has been identified. Airlines and airports have become increasingly popular prey for hackers, as their troves of personal and financial data and global reach make for tempting targets. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025. Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
