80 Million Customers' Personal Information Exposed
WHITFIELD: All right. One of the most popular Web sites for doing taxes resumes service after concerns about a hack attack. Turbo Tax stopped accepting online state tax returns on Thursday after concerns about a security breach. The company says they saw an increasing criminals using personal information, stolen from other sources in order to file fake state returns. Well, this comes just days after the nation's second largest health insurance company announced 80 million Americans' personal information may have been stolen by hackers. Anthem says customers' names, birthdays, Social Security numbers and addresses were all exposed. They are also warning about phishing schemes, a sign the hackers are already using data that they stole. I'm joined now by CNN business correspondent, Samuel Burke, and a white hat hacker and the CEO of TrustedSEC David Kennedy. All right, first to you, David. You have new details about how this Anthem attack was carried out?</s>DAVID KENNEDY, CEO, TRUSTEDSEC: Well, some initial indicators are that they could have came in through initial phishing, and that's basically going in and sending targeted e-mails to employees at Anthem in order for them to click a link and then from there compromise a machine and then hack into what we see today with the 80 million records that were stolen. So it looks like a compromise of the data base itself.</s>WHITFIELD: So, Samuel, you know, we've been seeing so many big companies being hacked. Do consumers, you know, just need to accept the fact that this is part of doing business? That it's unavoidable?</s>SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, that would be the absolute worst thing that we as consumers could do. You wouldn't let a burglar break into your house month after month. And in this case the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting that Anthem didn't even encrypt the information, so in some ways that's like leaving the door unlocked. If you're one of these people, the best thing that you can do right now is be vigilant about these phishing attack that David was just describing. You may get an e-mail that says you're account was one of the accounts that was hacked, click here to reset your password, and that actually could be the fake e-mail that you're getting because they have all these information right now. So if somebody e-mails you or gives you a phone call and they say they're from Anthem or from any other big company for that reason, say, great, I'll call you back, look at the number on the back of your card. Go to the Web site on your own, do everything on your own accord. Don't reply to e-mails or phone calls.</s>WHITFIELD: Right. And don't even agree to stuff like, is this you? Is this your Social Security number? Is this your banking account information?</s>BURKE: Exactly.</s>KENNEDY: Right.</s>WHITFIELD: Because people somehow will do that, they'll kind of, you know, engage in that. So, David, you know, what are these criminals looking to do with this personal information? Is it, you know, try to open up other credit cards, you know, buy homes, make big purchases? What are they going to do with this information?</s>KENNEDY: Well, this isn't -- this is actually a really alarming trend right now. You saw last year and the year before, you know, we had Target, Home Depot and Jimmie Johns, who all experienced a major credit card breaches. And credit cards are relatively painful for consumers because they have to get a new credit card reissued, right? But what's happened is that the retail industry has really tried to move to encryption which we saw it wasn't the case in Anthem and so the hackers are actually changing their techniques and moving more towards what we call personal identifiable information. And the problem with that is that you can't just reissue your Social Security number easily. So if your Social Security gets compromised they can take outlines of credit, you know, fraudulent transactions, it can really destroy your entire livelihood and it's really difficult to protect. So, you know, Anthem is offering a year of credit monitoring service. It's not going to be good enough because they can take out, you know, your line of credit two years from now or five years from now.</s>WHITFIELD: My gosh.</s>KENNEDY: All that information is now taken. It's really devastating.</s>WHITFIELD: That is scary. And so, Samuel, what can be done with your information like your e- mails, or just your address, say, they don't have the Social Security, but they have that other kind of information?</s>BURKE: Well, in some ways people say this is worst than having your credit card stolen.</s>KENNEDY: Absolutely.</s>BURKE: Because you can change your credit card number, which is what David was just describing. It's much harder to change your date of birth, your Social Security number, near impossible, so you probably need permanent credit monitoring, so want to be as vigilant as possible as long as you can. And again, a credit card company, they're going to be vigilant all the time. We've all received that dreaded phone call that tells you someone made a purchase at Best Buy on your credit card. But they have that type of vigilant monitoring. When it comes to us looking at our 401(k)s, looking at tax returns, we're not nearly as vigilant so in some ways this is much worse than having your credit card stolen.</s>KENNEDY: Spot on.</s>WHITFIELD: So -- so is the recommendation for everybody, you know, David and Samuel, which is like, just put on a longstanding alert, you know, on your Social Security? So that no matter what, I guess for -- no matter what period of time, a credit card can never be opened, the bank account can never be opened without your direct consent?</s>BURKE: Yes. Well, you want to do things like that, you want to be as vigilant as possible but the number one thing really is those phishing attacks. So just be vigilant looking at your e-mail, listening to those phone calls, and do things on your own is always my advice.</s>WHITFIELD: David, what's your advice?</s>KENNEDY: I actually attest to those credit monitoring services, they're really good.</s>WHITFIELD: Say that again?</s>KENNEDY: I attest to those credit monitoring services. I actually have my entire family and my kids on those that actually actively monitor your -- you know, new credit cards being taking out.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes.</s>KENNEDY: Or new lines of credits. They actually work really well and they're relatively inexpensive.</s>WHITFIELD: Really?</s>KENNEDY: Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: Because is it just me? I'm afraid of those, too.</s>KENNEDY: And it's -- the world we live in today unfortunately it's going to continue to get worse until we can figure out a way to get ahold of this.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. David Kennedy, Samuel Burke, thanks so much, gentlemen. Appreciate it.</s>KENNEDY: Thank you very much.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. And we'll be right back.