- TriWest Healthcare confirmed a breach on April 16 in which an attacker accessed and downloaded sensitive data linked to 12,000 TRICARE beneficiaries.
- The stolen information includes names, Department of Defense benefit numbers, ZIP codes, authorization application types, and, in some cases, Social Security numbers, addresses, and dates of birth.
- TriWest says it acted immediately to contain the intrusion and notify affected individuals; No group has claimed responsibility and the stolen data has not appeared online.
American healthcare company TriWest Healthcare Networks recently suffered a cyberattack in which it lost confidential data of thousands of its clients’ users.
TriWest is a private company that manages government healthcare programs, primarily on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). One of its clients is TRICARE, a Department of Defense health care program for active duty service members, National Guard and Reserve members, retired military members and their families.
According to Cybernews, TriWest recently began notifying TRICARE customers that an “unauthorized person” accessed its network on April 16 and “downloaded information from TriWest.” Citing data provided to the California State Attorney General’s Office, the publication says that 12,000 TRICARE beneficiaries were recently notified of the breach.
sounding the alarm
In a statement shared with military timesTriWest explained what it did the moment it detected the intrusion: “Regarding the timing, as soon as the incident was discovered, TriWest took immediate action to prevent any unauthorized activity and worked diligently with the government to notify affected individuals, in accordance with applicable law and notification deadlines,” TriWest officials said.
Details about the incident, the nature of the attack or the identity of the attackers were not revealed. What we do know is that bad actors took people’s names, Department of Defense benefit numbers, ZIP codes, types of clearance applications, and, in some cases, Social Security numbers (SSNs), mailing addresses, and dates of birth.
At the time of writing, TriWest’s website, as well as the company’s newsroom, were offline. It is unclear if there is any connection to the data breach. So far, no threat actor has claimed responsibility for the attack and the data has yet to appear on the dark web.
In the meantime, TRICARE beneficiaries are warned to be wary of incoming emails, especially those claiming to come from the program or company.
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