Computer hacking:Anthem’s sour note.

This could be one of the biggest corporate data breaches in history.

MEDICAL and insurance records are like catnip for hackers, who can make a fortune by selling them in black markets on the internet. Anthem, one of America’s biggest medical insurers, has just discovered how tempting a target they make. On February 4th the company revealed that as many as 80m digital records of its customers and its employees may have been compromised after intruders broke into its systems.
Anthem alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the theft and engaged Mandiant, a well-known cyber-security firm, to help with an investigation into what it has described as a “very sophisticated external cyberattack”. Joseph Swedish, the firm’s chief executive, has written a public letter personally apologising for the breach.

The scale of the theft is still unclear. Social-security numbers, e-mail addresses, employment information and birth dates have certainly been swiped. The chances are that other information has been purloined too, though Anthem reckons the hackers were not able to get their hands on medical records and details of insurance claims.
The damage could have been even worse if an eagle-eyed staffer at the firm had not spotted last week that a computer program was running using his personal identifier, even though he had not triggered it. Still, the scale of the data mountain to which the hackers had access suggests this episode could turn out to be one of the biggest corporate data breaches in history.
Coming hard on the heels of the devastating cyber attack on Sony Pictures, a film-maker, the Anthem breach will reinforce calls for more action to be taken to defend companies in America against online attacks. In his recent state-of-the-union address, President Barack Obama pledged to spend much more money on beefing up cyber-security.
But throwing extra cash at the complex problem is no guarantee of a cure. Many breaches are the result of basic flaws in computer security, such as a failure to protect passwords properly or to encrypt sensitive data. Banks, in particular, have made a huge effort to tighten up their defences, though a big breach at JPMorgan Chase in 2014 showed that there is still some room for improvement in that industry. Now that the banking system is a tougher nut to crack, more hackers may turn their attention to the health-care industry instead.

economist.