Aetna Reports Data Breach

HDM Breaking News, May 28, 2009

Health insurer Aetna Inc. confirmed that some e-mail addresses were recently copied from its job application Web site and used to send out phony e-mails, according to the Associated Press news service.

Social Security numbers of current and former employees and people who received job offers from the company were stored on the Web site, which was maintained by an outside vendor.

Most of the information on the job application site was from current and former employees. For people who received job offers, the site also stored phone numbers, addresses and employment histories.

Aetna has no reports that this information or the Social Security numbers were copied, a spokeswoman told AP. Nevertheless, the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer is offering free credit monitoring for a year to about 65,000 people in case their data was breached.

Although the site held e-mail addresses for about 450,000 people who had applied for jobs or submitted resumes, the Aetna spokesman said the insurer isn’t certain how many were copied. But the spokesman confirmed to AP that some of these e-mails were copied from the site and then used to contact applicants.

Aetna discovered the problem in early May when it received complaints from applicants who received phony e-mails that told them they had a job offer or asked for personal information, such as addresses and telephone numbers. It then shut down the site and launched an investigation, posting a warning on its main site, aetna.com/.

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