The second-largest health insurer in the nation, Anthem, has been the latest victim of a cyberattack and the personal information about millions of its employees and customers has been subsequently exposed. As many as 80 million customers have had their information stolen in this massive cybersecurity breach, as Anthem and its affiliates cover one in nine Americans. Names, birthdays, social security numbers, addresses, medical IDs, and employment information are all forms of data that has been stolen.


However, there is no evidence that credit card information was obtained.

The company offers insurance plans in fourteen, but claims there is no way of telling how many people may be affected by this breach. However, they are certain that customers of Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Amerigroup, Caremore, Unicare, Healthlink, and DeCare brands were affected by the hacking.

The FBI has been called in to investigate and Anthem has hired a cybersecurity firm to evaluate the security of its network. Experts estimate that this may surpass the breadth of the 2014 data breaches at Target and Home Depot.

The Anthem hacking follows a dangerously increasing trend amongst health and medical centers, in which medical and health-care entities accounted for 42.5% of data breaches last year. This trend accounts for heightened penalties for data that is improperly handled, such as the fines as a result of the rash of incidents in Massachusetts in the last few years.

Organizations like these store vast amounts of medical and financial information, the most lucrative kind, but are also the most vulnerable because of their struggle to defend data at the same level as large retail companies. To illustrate the value of this information, a set of comprehensive health insurance credentials sold for $20 each on an underground market, whereas the price of a credit card number with a security code pales at a rate of $1-$2 per card.

In response to the cyberattack, Anthem is now offering several forms of free identity theft protection to current and former customers. For two years, it will provide credit monitoring and identity theft repair assistance if someone experiences fraud.

Most concerning is the need for identity protection designed specifically for children. Tens of millions of American children were also victims of this hacking and have been exposed to a severe risk of identity theft that may persist for decades.

A child’s social security number is the most valuable of stolen information in illegal markets. For most minors, it has never been used and is unassociated with a credit file, so the odds of a credit-reporting agency monitoring the number is miniscule. Thus, combining a stolen number with someone else’s name, address, and birthdate to create a synthetic ID can be used for frauds. Frequently, the fraud is not discovered until the child turns eighteen and applies for a student loan or a credit card. By then, their credit history is completely ruined.

However, parents of children insured through Anthem may be able to watch for warning signs that indicate early notice of fraud. These signals include notices for a debt incurred in a child’s name and pre-approved credit card offers in the mail for minors. Additionally, the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, allow parents to check on the credit of their underage children at no cost. Anthem customers may also sign up for ChildScan, a service which specifically targets synthetic IDs, for free.

Most importantly, Anthem customers, as well as any victims of unrelated data breaches, should continue to be vigilant long after the buzz around the cyberattack dies down. According to security experts, the longer a stolen social security number remains unused, the more valuable it becomes because the victim has likely stopped worrying about fraud.