Personal data of Allianz Life customers stolen in cyberattack
What's the story
Allianz Life, a leading US insurance company, has confirmed a major data breach in mid-July. The incident compromised the personal information of a large number of its customers, financial professionals, and employees. The breach was disclosed in a filing with Maine's attorney general. However, the exact number of individuals affected by this incident is yet to be revealed.
Incident details
Attackers accessed cloud-based CRM database
Brett Weinberg, a spokesperson for Allianz Life, confirmed the breach to TechCrunch. He explained that on July 16, a malicious actor accessed a third-party, cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) database used by Allianz Life. The attacker managed to steal personally identifiable information of most Allianz Life customers as well as financial professionals and select employees using social engineering techniques.
Company actions
Allianz Life serves 1.4M customers
In response to the breach, Allianz Life has notified the FBI and is investigating the incident. The company has also filed a legally required disclosure with Maine's attorney general about the data breach. According to Weinberg, Allianz Life serves 1.4 million customers while its parent company Allianz has over 125 million customers globally.
Security measures
Company yet to confirm if it received ransom note
Weinberg said there is no evidence that any other systems on Allianz Life's network were compromised in the breach. The company has not confirmed whether it received any communication from the hackers such as a ransom note or if it can be attributed to a particular hacking group. The insurance giant is one of several companies to have been hacked in recent weeks, amid a wave of data breaches targeting the insurance industry.
Notification plan
Affected customers will be notified next month
According to the filing with Maine's attorney general, Allianz Life plans to start notifying those affected by the data breach on August 1. The company is still investigating the incident in the meantime.