Maine, other states criticize Anthem

National insurer Anthem Inc. is facing criticism from Maine and other states for not notifying customers fast enough about the large data breach that was announced last week.

Reuters reported that Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen sent the letter Tuesday on behalf of Maine and nine other states. “The delay in notifying those impacted is unreasonable and is causing unnecessary added worry to an already concerned population of Anthem customers,” he said, adding that Anthem should compensate any customer who falls victim to fraud before the company issues free monitoring services, as it has promised.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine said in a statement Wednesday that “Anthem is committed to timely notification to consumers affected by the cyber-attack…”

“Since the attack was discovered, we have been working with a vendor that is quickly making the necessary preparations to provide credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to the millions of people potentially affected by this attack,” the statement continued. “We have laid out a thoughtful plan with this vendor so that they can accommodate what we anticipate will be very high demand for these services. Our goal is to provide peace of mind to consumers, while minimizing frustration.”

Anthem said information about the free credit monitoring and identity protection services and how to enroll will be available on its website at anthemfacts.com on Friday.

Source: Reuters

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