The US insurer Anthem has been praised for its handling of a recent breach against its computer systems, in contrast to many other firms that have suffered similar attacks.
Despite 80 million of the firm’s customer records being exposed in the attack, the security vendor Cyphort has argued the company responded well, quickly remediating the situation once it has discovered a problem.
"I believe that Anthem has done a good job around the handling of this incident," said Fengmin Gong, chief strategy officer at Cyphort, writing on his company’s website.
"Anthem employees discovered the breach; Anthem quickly involved law enforcement authorities and set up an information channel for the public; [and] Anthem’s CEO quickly pledged credit-monitoring type of services to those affected in his public letter posted on the web site."
Contrasting his praise, Fengmin questioned why the breach was detected only after so much data was stolen, suggesting that the attack should prompt businesses to change how they dealt with cybersecurity.
As potential solutions he highlighted continuous monitoring of cyber-threats, and the adoption of more modern technologies, adding that investment and interest from US president Barack Obama had also been welcome.
"I would call on businesses, security product vendors, governments, and the media to all start focusing on ‘what next?’ and ‘how to?’ in order to improve our security posture as quickly as possible," he said.
