Blue Shield of California Suffers a Data Leak Through Vendor Fortra: Over 63,000 Exposed to Breach

  • By Steven
  • Published: Apr 07, 2023
  • Last Updated: Apr 09, 2023
Blue Shield of California Data Breach
"Health care reform protest at Blue Shield of California" by Steve Rhodes is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Source: Flickr

Blue Shield of California is one of the largest healthcare providers in the state of California. The health insurance company is nonprofit and delivers insurance to Californians all over the state. Hundreds of thousands of residents rely on the provider for their health insurance, and they trust the company with vast amounts of personal and health information. The company recently suffered from cyber security attacks and may have lost a large amount of that secured data to attackers looking to profit from consumer information. 

How Did the Attack Occur?

Blue Shield of California relies on a file storage and transfer service offered by Fortra. The company recently suffered from a series of cyber attacks that made many different companies vulnerable to data loss. One of those companies was Blue Shield of California. When the attack occurred, more than 63,000 customers that entrusted their information to the insurance company were potentially exposed to the attackers. Large amounts of data were gathered before January 28, and Fortra didn't determine exactly what information was lost until after completing an investigation on January 31. 

What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?

The attack on Fortra exposed all of the following bits of information for Blue Shield of California customers. The customers may have had their first and last names, phone numbers, email addresses, employer names, gender, home address, member ID number, and date of birth exposed by this attack. No Social Security numbers or other personal and highly confidential information was exposed by the attack, but the users were still put at real risk based on the information that was disclosed by the breach. 

How Did Blue Shield of California Admit to the Breach?

Blue Shield of California filed a disclosure report with the Maine Attorney General's office about the data breach involving more than 63,000 customers. The document explains what data is involved and overviews how the attack occurred. 

What Will Become of the Stolen Information?

The Blue Shield of California information will likely be used for future phishing attacks, it will be sold for a profit, and it will be used in attempted fraud. It's unlikely that attackers will be able to open lines of credit or make purchases with the stolen information, but there are some very real concerns that users should have, and they should be taking steps to protect themselves. 

What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?

The more than 63,000 affected users that had their information stored at Blue Shield of California should be monitoring their credit and financial accounts closely. Anyone marked as being involved has access to a free credit monitoring service they are encouraged to make use of. The service can help ensure that you're protected against any real attacks on your credit and that you don't face additional problems in the future. You should also be careful to avoid supplying any private information via email to anyone and to avoid clicking on links in your email from those you don't trust completely.

About the Author
IDStrong Logo

Related Articles

Instagram Vulnerability Allowed Hackers Access to Control Your Phone

Security experts Check Point Research discovered a critical vulnerability while examining Instagra ... Read More

Alien Malware Infects More than 226 Mobile Apps and Steals Bank Data

As reported on September 24, 2020, by ZDNet and ThreatPost, a new strain of malware named “A ... Read More

Universal Health Systems Hit by Ransomware Attack

Universal Health Systems (UHS), a Fortune 500 company owning more than 400 hospitals across the co ... Read More

Exchange Server Bug Exposes a Big Risk to Hackers

Months after Microsoft released a patch to fix a serious flaw in MS Exchange Server, more than 61% ... Read More

Clients’ Bank Data Exposed in Blackbaud Ransomware Attack

Blackbaud software was victim to a ransomware attack last May, and new information suggests that c ... Read More

Latest Articles

What You Need to Know about the Delta Dental Data Breach

What You Need to Know about the Delta Dental Data Breach

Delta Dental is a dental insurance provider serving over 90 million Americans. It offers coverage in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. The company was established in 1966 in California as part of the Delta Dental Plans Association.

What You Need to Know about the Hot Topic Data Breach

What You Need to Know about the Hot Topic Data Breach

Hot Topic plays in the fashion, apparel, and shoe industry as a retailer of music-influenced apparel and accessories, such as jeans, tops, belts, dresses, pajamas, sunglasses, jewelry, and tees.

Google Voice Scams: What They Are and How to Stay Safe

Google Voice Scams: What They Are and How to Stay Safe

Google Voice scams continue to pose a risk for users of this service. Scammers continuously attempt to lure users into divulging their verification PIN code.

Featured Articles

How to Buy a House with Bad Credit

How to Buy a House with Bad Credit

Buying your own home is the American Dream, but it might seem out of reach to those with bad credit. However, the good news is, if your credit is less than perfect, you do still have options and in most cases, can still buy a home.

How Secure Is Your Password? Tips to Improve Your Password Security

How Secure Is Your Password? Tips to Improve Your Password Security

Any good IT article on computers and network security will address the importance of strong, secure passwords. However, the challenge of good passwords is that most people have a hard time remembering them, so they use simple or obvious ones that pose a security risk.

Top 10 Senior Scams and How to Prevent Them

Top 10 Senior Scams and How to Prevent Them

Senior scams are becoming a major epidemic for two reasons. First, seniors often have a lot of money in the bank from a life of working hard and saving.

Notice

By proceeding with this scan, you agree to let IDStrong run a Free Scan of supplied parameters of your personal information and provide free preliminary findings in compliance with our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice. You consent to us using your provided information to complete the Free Scan and compare it against our records and breach databases or sources to provide your Free preliminary findings report.

Rest assured: IDStrong will not share your information with third parties or store your information beyond what is required to perform your scan and share your results.

Free Identity Threat Scan
Instantly Check if Your Personal Information is Exposed
All fields below are required
Please enter first name
Please enter last name
Please enter a city
Please select a state
Please enter an age
Please enter an email address
Close