> series: anatomy_of_a_breach —— part: 075 —— target: premera_blue_cross —— records: 11,000,000 —— clinical_data: yes<span class="cursor-blink">_</span>_
On 17 March 2015 — barely six weeks after Anthem's 78.8-million-record disclosure — Premera Blue Cross announced that attackers had gained access to its systems in May 2014 and stolen the personal and medical data of approximately 11 million customers. Unlike Anthem, the Premera breach included clinical information — medical claims data, clinical information, and treatment records — in addition to the standard personal identifiers (names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank account details, and email addresses).
The Premera breach shared characteristics with the Anthem attack — the FBI had issued a specific warning to the healthcare sector about Chinese APT activity targeting health insurers. The back-to-back disclosure of Anthem and Premera established that the US healthcare sector was under sustained, coordinated attack by sophisticated adversaries targeting health data at scale. For UK healthcare organisations, the message was clear: if the world's largest health insurers could not protect their data, no healthcare organisation could afford to assume it was safe.
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Free Scoping CallThe inclusion of clinical data in the Premera breach made it particularly sensitive. Medical claims data — records of treatments, diagnoses, prescriptions, and conditions — is among the most intimate information an organisation can hold. Its exposure enables medical identity fraud (filing false insurance claims using stolen identities), blackmail (threatening to reveal sensitive diagnoses), and discrimination (employers or insurers using leaked health information against individuals).
The Anthem-Premera one-two proved that compliance-driven security is insufficient against determined adversaries. UK healthcare organisations subject to the DSPT, UK GDPR, and Cyber Essentials must go beyond compliance checkboxes to implement tested, monitored, continuously validated security controls. Our penetration testing identifies the gaps. SOC in a Box for Healthcare monitors continuously. And UK Cyber Defence provides incident response when healthcare data is targeted.
Our <a href="/penetration-testing">penetration testing</a> goes beyond compliance. <a href="https://www.socinabox.co.uk/sectors/gp-surgeries">SOC in a Box for Healthcare</a> monitors 24/7. <a href="/cyber-essentials">Cyber Essentials</a> establishes the baseline.
We'll scope your test for free and tell you exactly what you need. No obligation, no hard sell.
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