The massive cyberattack against health insurer Anthem Inc. received significant coverage on television and in print, garnering nearly seven minutes of coverage across all three network newscasts Thursday night. Sources indicate the attack, which compromised the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, may have originated in China. A number of media outlets portray the attack as the latest example of broader cybersecurity issues across the healthcare industry.
Scott Pelley reported in the lead story for CBS Evening News (2/5, lead story, 2:50, Pelley) that “cyber thieves” broke into a database at Anthem Inc., the country’s second-largest health insurer, jeopardizing the privacy of “millions of Americans.” The company “says that database contains 80 million records, including names, birth dates, and social security numbers,” though it’s unclear whether the hackers gained access to health records. Speaking on the potential fallout from the breach, American Medical Association President Robert Wah, MD, said, “If you lose your credit card, we all know you call 1-800-I lost my card and they turn your credit card off. There is no one-800-I lost my health record and you can turn off all that rich information in your health record.” CBS Correspondent Kris Van Cleave added that sources “say the FBI Is looking into the possibility the attack came from overseas, possibly China.”
Correspondent Pete Williams reported on NBC Nightly News (2/5, story 2, 2:40, Williams) that the Anthem cyberattack “is different from the recent big hack attacks of Target and Home Depot,” which “went after credit cards and account numbers.” This time, “the hackers were targeting the kind of personal information that can be used to steal someone’s identity.” Anthem says it appears no medical information or credit card numbers were compromised, “but it says a trove of personal data was stolen – names, social security numbers, birth dates, street and email addresses, and employment information.”
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