Fergie's Tech Blog

Express Scripts: 700,000 Notified After Extortion

Robert McMillan writes on ComputerWorld:

Nearly a year after being hacked by computer extortionists, pharmacy benefits management company Express Scripts now says hundreds of thousands of members may have had their information breached because of the incident.

Last November, the company reported that someone had threatened to expose millions of customer prescription records, but it has come under criticism for being vague about how many of its customers' records were accessed. Now the company says that about 700,000 have been notified.

The trouble started for the St. Louis-based company in October 2008, when it received a letter containing the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and prescription data of 75 patients. The extortionists threatened to turn the information public if they weren't paid. Express Scripts refused and instead notified the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The company is now offering a US$1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.

Express Script has not said how the criminals managed to get hold of the data, but in an e-mailed statement the company said that "there have been no reported cases of misuse of member information resulting from the incident."

In a June court filing, the company said that three of its customers have also been approached by the extortionists.

posted by Fergie @ 9/30/2009 05:06:00 PM