The 2014 Anthem Inc. hack, according to the individuals who sued following the breach affecting 79 million individuals, was a crime of opportunity that resulted because the health plan “failed to implement basic policies and procedures that could have prevented the attack,” in the words of current and former Anthem members. A class action suit against Anthem was recently settled for $115 million (RPP 9/18, p. 1). In addition, the HHS Office for Civil Rights collected $16 million from Anthem for the same breach (see story, p. 1).

The suit alleged Anthem also “needlessly maintain[ed] information regarding former customers (as far back to 2004) on their databases and servers.”