On April 18, DataBreaches.net addressed a question raised by some as to whether the Premera breach had resulted in any tax refund fraud or other types of fraud. At the time of posting, Premera had not responded to the inquiries sent to them. Today, DataBreaches.net received the following answers:
1. Does Premera now have any evidence that data was actually acquired or exfiltrated in the attack?
The investigation has not determined that any such data was removed from our systems and we have no evidence to date that such data has been used inappropriately. We continue to encourage affected individuals to sign up for the credit monitoring and identity theft protection products. Members should enroll on line through the www.Premeraupdate.com website or by calling Experian directly at 888-451-6558.
2. Has Premera received any reports of tax refund fraud that appear to be linked to the attack? If so, how many such reports have been received?
The IRS has released warnings on at least 12 different tax scams that are in operation during tax filing season this year. We continue to coordinate with the FBI on its investigation into this attack and it’s important to note that our investigation has not determined that any information has been removed from our systems nor is there any evidence that any such data has been used inappropriately. We do not believe that these scams are related to the cyberattack.
As this site has noted repeatedly and as Premera notes above, given how many breaches have occurred, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for any one victim of tax refund fraud to know from where their information was stolen or acquired. But blaming any one entity when they’ve found no evidence of any data theft really does seem a bit of stretch.