Just lately, Colonial Life & Accident Insurance coverage Firm filed an official report of an information breach impacting tens of 1000’s of people. Based on the newest submitting by Colonial Life, the breach resulted within the names, Social Safety numbers, addresses, monetary account data and guarded well being data being compromised. On Could 23, 2022, Colonial Life despatched out knowledge breach letters to all affected events, informing them of the incident.
Should you acquired an information breach notification, it’s important you perceive what’s in danger and what you are able to do about it. To study extra about the way to shield your self from changing into a sufferer of fraud or id theft and what your authorized choices are within the wake of the Colonial Life knowledge breach, please see our latest piece on the subject right here.
What Is Recognized In regards to the Colonial Life Knowledge Breach
The Colonial Life & Accident Insurance coverage Firm knowledge breach was solely very lately reported. Thus, little or no is thought concerning the particulars of the breach and what led as much as the incident. Nevertheless, in accordance with the corporate’s preliminary submitting, the Colonial Life breach resulted within the following shopper knowledge being compromised:
Names,
Addresses,
Social Safety numbers,
Driver’s license numbers,
Authorities-issued identification numbers,
Monetary account data,
Medical data, and
Well being data.
On Could 23, 2022, Colonial Life despatched out knowledge breach letters to all people whose data was compromised because of the latest knowledge safety incident.
Colonial Life & Accident Insurance coverage Firm is an insurance coverage firm based mostly in Columbia, South Carolina. Colonial Life offers a variety of insurance coverage merchandise, together with life insurance coverage, incapacity insurance coverage, most cancers insurance coverage, essential care insurance coverage, and well being and dental insurance coverage. The corporate was based in 1937 and operated independently till 1993, when it grew to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unum Group, a Tennessee-based insurance coverage firm. Colonial Life employs greater than 11,200 individuals and generates roughly $5 billion in annual income.
Do Companies Have a Obligation to Report Knowledge Breaches?
Sure, each state has legal guidelines on the books requiring firms to supply discover of an information breach to customers whose data was affected by a breach. Nevertheless, simply because a breach occurred doesn’t essentially imply that an organization must report it. As a normal rule, most states’ legal guidelines solely require firms to reveal breaches that have an effect on customers’ personally identifiable data.
Nevertheless, as a result of federal regulation doesn’t include an information breach notification requirement, there is no such thing as a common definition of what constitutes “personally identifiable data,” as it’s as much as every state to outline the time period. The result’s {that a} breach that should be reported in a single state might not must be reported in one other state.
Sometimes, the intent of the info breach notification requirement is two-fold. First, receiving discover of an information breach offers customers the chance to mitigate the potential harms related to the breach by taking the suitable actions. Typically, this contains closing compromised accounts, re-issuing bank cards, signing up for credit score monitoring, and intently monitoring one’s monetary accounts and credit score studies.
The second objective of information breach notification legal guidelines is to encourage firms to step as much as the plate with regards to implementing a sturdy knowledge safety system. If firms know that they have to report an information breach, they are going to doubtless be extra cautious in how they deal with shopper data for worry of public backlash. On this method, strict knowledge breach reporting legal guidelines can truly lower the variety of breaches.
Should you have been impacted by a latest knowledge breach and need to study extra about your rights and potential cures, attain out to a knowledge breach lawyer for help.
