Calif. Insurance Department Records Hacked
By Mark E. Ruquet
NU Online News Service, July, 12, 3:07 p.m. EDT?The California Department of Insurance said an investigation is continuing to discover who hacked into its computer server containing social security numbers and other pre-licensing information belonging to nearly 600 agents.[@@]
Despite the breach, however, the department said that encrypted coding should keep the hacker from reading any of the material.
Some 599 agents who were in the process of getting their producer licenses were affected by the hacker's break-in, the department said.
The activity occurred on June 30. The department said it is sending letters to affected applicants whose name, address and social security numbers were on the system.
Byron Tucker, communication director for Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, said that it appears the incident began around 6 a.m. and was not discovered for two hours when technicians noticed the department's server was being used to transfer movie and music files to a foreign source. Technicians forced the user off the server as soon as the activity was discovered.
This was an isolated incident and it is extremely rare for anyone to access the department's system, said Mr. Tucker. He emphasized that if the hacker copied any records the encryption used by the department makes it virtually impossible to open the files without a key to access.
The processing of the pre-licensing applications was not affected by the incident, said Mr. Tucker. A new server and upgraded security were implemented within 17 hours after the incident, he noted. However, it took slightly more than a week to determine who was affected, he added.
The incident was reported to the California Highway Patrol, which is still investigating the incident, and the Department of Finance, Technology Oversight Security Unit.
While the information is encrypted and "it is highly unlikely that the information was compromised," the department advised that anyone receiving a letter should order copies of their credit reports to make sure there is no "unauthorized activity."
Anyone concerned about their information can contact Archie Alimagno, the insurance department's information security officer, at (916) 492-3353.
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