Hackers gained entry to private knowledge on the vast majority of the 1.4 million clients of Allianz Life Insurance coverage Firm of North America, the corporate confirmed Saturday.
Minneapolis-based Allianz Life, a subsidiary of Munich, Germany-based Allianz SE, mentioned the info breach occurred on July 16 when a “malicious menace actor” gained entry to a third-party, cloud-based system utilized by the corporate.
“The menace actor was in a position to get hold of personally identifiable knowledge associated to the vast majority of Allianz Life’s clients, monetary professionals, and choose Allianz Life staff, utilizing a social engineering method,” Allianz Life mentioned in a press release. “We took rapid motion to include and mitigate the difficulty and notified the FBI.”
The corporate mentioned its personal programs weren’t accessed, simply the third-party’s platform.
Allianz Life mentioned its investigation is ongoing and that the corporate has begun reaching out to the impacted people. It mentioned the incident entails solely Allianz Life within the U.S., not different Allianz company entities.
Within the case of information breaches, a “social engineering method” often entails utilizing trickery to realize entry. Spokesman Brett Weinberg mentioned he could not present particulars as a result of they’re nonetheless investigating.
Allianz Life additionally reported the breach to a number of different authorities, together with the Maine Lawyer Basic’s Workplace. A submitting on the company’s web site mentioned the corporate found the breach the day after it occurred, and that it is going to be providing these affected 24 months of identification theft safety and credit score monitoring.
Allianz Life was often called North American Life and Casualty till it was acquired by German conglomerate Allianz SE in 1979 and altered its title to Allianz Life Insurance coverage Firm of North America. It has practically 2,000 staff in U.S., with the bulk working in Minnesota, in response to its web site.
It’s one in all 5 North American subsidiaries of the Munich-based world monetary providers group Allianz SE, which says it serves greater than 125 million clients worldwide.