Over a million Americans data 'hacked': Allianz Life says majority of customers’ data stolen; FBI notified

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America has suffered a major hacker attack affecting millions of customers. A “malicious threat actor” gained access to a third-party, cloud-based system used by Allianz and obtained personally identifiable data related to the majority of customers as well as financial professionals and some employees, Allianz Life said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. Hackers gained access to personal data on the majority of the 1.4 million customers of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, the company confirmed. “The threat actor was able to obtain personally identifiable data related to the majority of Allianz Life’s customers, financial professionals, and select Allianz Life employees, using a social engineering technique,” the statement added.Allianz Life said its investigation is ongoing and that the company has begun reaching out to the impacted individuals and disclosed it in a filing with the Maine attorney general’s office. The company claimed that its own systems were not accessed, just the third-party's platform. It said the incident involves only Allianz Life in the U.S., not other Allianz corporate entities.Allianz Life said that it has notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the hacking attack. “We took immediate action to contain and mitigate the issue and notified the FBI,” Allianz Life said. Allianz Life further said that the company has reported the breach to multiple other authorities, including the Maine Attorney General's Office. A filing on the agency's website said the company discovered the breach the day after it happened, and that it will be offering those affected 24 months of identity theft protection and credit monitoring.Minneapolis-based Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America is one of five North American subsidiaries of the Munich-based global financial services group Allianz SE, which says it serves more than 125 million customers worldwide. Allianz Life was known as North American Life and Casualty until it was acquired by German conglomerate Allianz SE in 1979 and changed its name to Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America. The company has nearly 2,000 employees in the U.S., with the majority working in Minnesota, as per the information given on its website.