US indicts Chinese hacker for exposing 80M Anthem patient records

A Chinese hacker remains at large after being accused of hacking into Anthem’s computer systems to expose nearly 80 million patient records, according to a U.S. indictment that was unsealed May 9 and reported by Bloomberg.

Advertisement

In the indictment, Fuji Wang is accused of helping a hacking group in China gain access to Anthem’s computer systems and the computer systems of three other U.S. businesses.

The other defendant, who was identified as John Doe in the indictment, has also been accused of aiding in exposing Anthem members’ names, health identification numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, income data and other personal information.

Anthem’s computer systems were first hacked in 2014. The U.S. claims the hackers worked slowly to avoid detection, gaining incremental access to the health insurer’s network.

By 2015, the hackers had “back door” access to the computer systems. Mr. Wang and John Doe used “extremely sophisticated” techniques, including “spear-fishing” emails with malicious hyperlinks to Anthem employees, Bloomberg reports. Once the links were clicked, malware was downloaded onto the computers giving the hackers access.

To read the full indictment, click here.

More articles on cybersecurity:
Spectrum Health Lakeland alerts 1,100 patients of data breach
No experience needed for cybersecurity jobs
24% of health IT experts would refuse to pay ransom

Advertisement

Next Up in Cybersecurity

Advertisement

Comments are closed.