China suspected in Anthem hack

China is suspected of having been behind the massive data breach at Anthem, the second-largest health insurer in the US.(See: Hackers strike US health insurance giant Anthem; steal millions of personal data)

The Anthem hack had elements linking it to China's infamous People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398, which had been implicated in numerous recent cyber-attacks against the US government and private companies in the past, according to two unnamed intelligence officials who spoke to Bloomberg.

The attack exposes a growing cyber threat facing health-care companies that, according to experts, were  often not prepared for large attacks, The Washington Post reported.

In one of the largest medical-related cyber-intrusions in history, hackers gained access to the private data of 80 million former and current members and employees of the company.

According to authorities, the breach which came to light late last month, did not involve private health records or credit card numbers, though it did expose Social Security numbers, income data, birthdays and street and email addresses.

According to an individual briefed on certain aspects of the probe the needle of suspicion pointed towards Chinese hackers.

According to security experts, health care had emerged among the lucrative targets for hackers due to the veritable treasure trove of financial and medical information. They add health insurers and hospitals, had often struggled to put up defences used by large financial or retail companies, even as it left key medical information vulnerable.

Meanwhile, according to qz.com, the attack was particularly worrisome for the US government, given Anthem's customer list, which included, among others, Michael Daniel, US president Barack Obama's chief adviser on cyber-security.

Daniel might be only one among thousands of US government employees affected by the hack, many of them currently or formerly tasked with US security and defence.

That was because one Anthem division, National Government Services, specialised in federal health care plans, and included among its top clients the Defence Health Agency (DHA), which managed health care for the US Department of Defence, and the US Department of Veteran Administration, which covered retired military personnel.

Anthem also counted major defence contractors among its clients such as Northrup Grumman and Boeing.