Humana notifies members after credential stuffing attack on Humana.com and Go365.com

Health insurer Humana recently began notifying an unspecified number of health plan members after detecting and blocking a credential stuffing attack against Humana.com and Go365.com. The attacks took place on June 3 and June 4 from overseas IP addresses.

In a notification letter dated June 21, Jim Theiss, Humana’s Chief Privacy Officer, writes:

On June 3, 2018 Humana was the target of a sophisticated cyber spoofing attack that occurred on Humana.com and Go365.com. Your personal information on these websites may have been accessed by the attackers.

On June 3, 2018 Humana became aware of a significant increase in the number of secure log in errors that were the result of numerous attempts to log into Humana.com and/or Go365.com from foreign countries. Humana Cyber Security Operations blocked the offending foreign Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from the websites on June 4, 2018.

The volume of log in attempts to Humana.com and/or Go365.com on June 3, 2018 and June 4, 2018 suggested that a large and broad-based automated attack had been launched. This was evidenced by the volume of log in attempts coming from a foreign country. The nature of the attack and observed behaviors indicated the attacker had a large database of user identifiers (IDs) and corresponding passwords that were being inputted with the intention of identifying which might be valid on Humana.com and/or Go365.com. The excessive number of log in failures strongly suggests the ID and password combinations did not originate from Humana. Humana blocked the foreign addresses by June 4, 2018

In response to the incident, Humana took a number of steps, including forcing a password reset,  deploying new alerts of successful and failed logins and locked accounts, as well as deploying a series of technical controls to enhance web portal security. They are also offering members an identity theft protection product for one year.

Of note, Humana informed members that

Humana has determined there is no evidence that any data was removed from Humana systems.

This incident does not yet appear on HHS’ public breach tool. When it does, we will have a number of affected members.

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2 comments to “Humana notifies members after credential stuffing attack on Humana.com and Go365.com”

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  1. superpissedoff - July 11, 2018

    They did it again this time employee ss #s and home address and lord knows what else. Humana has about 50,000 employees. I just got notified today July 10th that my information was sent over the Internet with a unsecured data transfer tool. They gave us an excuse it was a third party employee but give no names of the company who did it. I’m sure it was offshore since humana likes to ship Americans data off shore. They like to have software development offshore also that’s how your data is stolen.

    • Dissent - July 11, 2018

      I had no idea what you were referring to but I did some digging and found that yes, Humana reported TWO breaches in June. One was the one that affected customers, but there was another incident affecting employees.

      Humana’s letter to the NH DOJ for that incident says, in part:

      The purpose of this letter is to notify your office of a recent incident that has occurred impacting residents of your state.

      On January 17, 2018 a Humana contracted employee used an unapproved web application to transmit unsecured Humana Inc. employee data as part of a new internal system integration project.

      Upon learning of this incident, Humana took immediate steps to determine the scope of impact. After a detailed analysis, we have concluded that this is an isolated incident that affected a limited number of individuals for a brief period of time. The personal information that was exposed included name, Social Security number and home address.

      At this time, we are aware that data was briefly placed on, and then removed from, an unsecure and unencrypted server. We have no evidence that the information has been used inappropriately.

      On June 4, 2018, notification letters were sent to one (1) New Hampshire residents who were impacted by this situation. Attached you will find a copy of the letter that includes an offer for free credit monitoring and free identity theft protection.

      We deeply regret this incident, but want to assure you that Humana has various safeguards to protect individual information including policies, procedures and technical safeguards. Humana will promptly report to your office and appropriate law enforcement officials any information that is shared with us that indicates this information has been inappropriately used.

      So yeah, they’re not more specific. I’ll keep my eyes open for more.

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