Selected Benefits, Inc. has notified client and potential clients of a potential breach of privacy and the company’s response to the incident.
On June 30, Selected Benefits was informed that its third party hosting service provider’s web servers were compromised. At this time, the scope of information impacted is unknown. It is believed this breach may also have impacted records of two additional insurance agencies, ISure LLC and AO Insurance Agency, Inc.
“We take this incident very seriously,” said Steve Wendlandt, president for Selected Benefits, Inc. “We are committed to maintaining client and applicant privacy and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or concern this may cause.”
The service provider is working with appropriate law enforcement authorities regarding the intrusion and are fully cooperating with an ongoing investigation, they said in a statement. Selected Benefits has not received a notice or has a reason to believe that any particular individual’s data was targeted or misused in a manner that exposes them to any significant risk of identity theft or financial harm, or that it will be further accessed or disclosed, the company stated.
The personal information that was potentially exposed may have included names, addresses, birth dates, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, gender, self-reported medical information, insurance information and banking and/or credit card information.
In response, Selected Benefits has "taken all reasonable measures" to verify that the records were retrieved and destroyed, and has terminated the vendor responsible. In addition, Selected Benefits said it is taking steps to strengthen security and operational protocols to ensure that all their vendors stringently protect client privacy. A new vendor with verified security measures has been retained to handle the hosting needs of Selected Benefits.
Those affected by the breach are encouraged to monitor their bank and credit card accounts for suspicious or unusual activity and to contact a credit bureau such as Equifax, Experian or TransUnion to obtain a free copy of their credit report, place a credit freeze or place a fraud alert.
For more information, patients may contact Selected Benefits at 866-270-6209, by email at databreach@selectedbenefits.com or mail at Selected Benefits, Inc., Attn: President, P.O. Box 10694, Conway, Ark. 72034.