Life and Annuity Tech Firm IMS Reports Breach Affected 6.1M People
For some clients, the records lost included Social Security numbers, payment card information and medical treatment information.
Infosystem McCamish Systems and customers reported in the spring that a fall ransomware attack on IMS systems had affected about 108,000 financial services company customers.
IMS hired an outside company to help it investigate the attack, and it now believes the attack may have affected the records of about 6.1 million people.
In some cases, the exposed records included people’s names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, biometric data, payment card information and medical treatment information, according to a notice IMS filed with the Maine attorney general’s office.
IMS is offering the people affected 24 months of credit monitoring and identity theft protection services from Kroll.
What it means: Some customers will need help with replacing passwords and personal identification documents and making sense of the credit monitoring reports.
Even for clients not directly affected by the data breach, helping them prove who they are to the satisfaction of banks, mutual fund companies and life insurers could get tougher before it gets easier.
The breach: LockBit, an international ransomware gang, is believed to have hacked IMS systems Oct. 29, 2023. IMS found the breach and began to block it four days later.
In addition to holding stolen data for ransom, LockBit attackers press victims with extortion, by publishing the names and data of victims who fail to pay ransom or hush money, according to the federal Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.
In the spring, the IMS customers with clients known to be affected included Bank of America, Northwestern Mutual and Fidelity’s Investments Life business.
IMS mentions Oceanview Life and Annuity Co. in the new notice.
Northwestern Mutual has filed a separate notice along with the template for a form letter from IMS. That notice shows that the estimated number of people affiliated with Northwestern Mutual who may have been exposed to the LockBit attack has fallen to 53,668, from 62,656 March 1.
Credit: Chris Nicholls/ALM; Adobe Stock