Health Insurance Database Hacked

[debodun]

I received a letter from my Heath Insurance Co that their computer were hacked last December and many client's SS#s, bank acct #s, medical records and other personal information was compromised. They offered to give me free credit monitoring for 2 years and gave a phone number to call to activate this service. After what happened to my uncle last winter, I was suspicious, so I called my HI, but there was a recorded message saying about the same thing as the letter, so it seems legit.

I mentioned this to some people at the last local senior's club meeting saying that if anything was going to happen, it would have by now. One of the people there said that sometimes when info is hijacked, the hackers sit on it for a while and don't act right away. A person they knew had something similar happen and it was 10 years after the incident her bank account was wiped out! I was dubious about these credit monitoring services - it would only be another source to which I give sensitive info.

I also asked about it at the bank. They said if I didn't want to avail myself of the monitoring service, I should close my account and open another, otherwise there's nothing they can do if someone withdraws funds electronically. Getting a new account seems like a hassle, since I have many companies I do business with (like utilities), that withdraw electronically from my account and I'd have to go through the trouble of getting them to get it from another one.

Just makes me think we depend too much on vulnerable electronics these days. Bring back filing cabinets!

On a scale of 1 to 10, how concerned should I be (I don't have a credit card, just a bank acct)?

 

[fureverywhere]

One of my bumper stickers "1984 was a Warning, not an Instruction Manual". Then again I remember when we had to get a copy of his birth certificate this year. The city where he was born is heavily populated but doesn't have computerized records before maybe the 1980's. Vital statistics has records from the last fifty years in cardboard boxes. Needless to say they couldn't find any proof he was born. She was flipping through index cards for 1954,55,56 and 57 just in case the card was in the wrong box...maddening and we had to get it from the state capital in the end.

I would think your bank could put a watch of some sort on your account. So if all of a sudden someone tries to withdraw a big amount of money they'll block it. Talk to your bank.