NEWS

Oregon to investigate LifeWise data breach

Saerom Yoo
Statesman Journal

Oregon will join Washington and Alaska in a multi-state investigation of a cyber attack of LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon and its parent company Premera Blue Cross, the Oregon Insurance Division has announced.

LifeWise has said 250,000 Oregonians’ personal information was exposed in the attack.

The investigation will cover cyber security, LifeWise’s response and financial impacts on consumers, providers and LifeWise.

The states will likely hire cyber security firms to investigate the nature of the data breach.

The type of data exposed include name, birth dates, social security numbers, mailing and email addresses, bank account information and phone numbers.

"Oregon takes the protection of personal identifying information very seriously and this investigation will closely scrutinize the data security practices of LifeWise," Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali said in a statement. "Oregon will be looking at how LifeWise learned about the breach, what process they used to identify affected consumers, and the adequacy of the consumer protections offered to those affected."

syoo@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6673 or follow at Twitter.com/syoo.