While some Connecticut residents are blaming the Anthem breach after becoming victims of tax refund fraud (a causal claim that Anthem denies) and some faculty at North Dakota State University wonder if the university’s breach last year is the cause of the tax refund fraud they’re experiencing (a causal claim that NDSU denies), some physicians and dentists in Jonesboro, Arkansas are blaming Premera for the tax refund fraud they’ve experienced. Premera also disclosed a massive data breach recently.
DataBreaches.net reached out to Premera yesterday to ask whether they had seen any indications that their breach had resulted in identity theft, but they did not respond to the e-mailed inquiry. So this post will be updated if a response is received.
In the meantime, I’ll reiterate what I said the other day: it is extremely difficult to know which of many breaches this year may have resulted in any tax refund fraud you have experienced, and I think class action lawsuits may have a rough time demonstrating a connection between any one breach and harm suffered – unless we get some intel that data from these breaches is up for sale on the underground market.