Hackers are extorting Globe Life with stolen customer data

Insurance giant Globe Life,  which provides life and health insurance policies to millions of Americans, says it is being extorted by a hacker that has stolen customers’ sensitive data.

In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, the Texas-based conglomerate said it has “recently received communications” from an unknown threat actor who is seeking to extort money from the company in exchange for not disclosing data stolen from its systems. 

The compromised data, which Globe Life has traced back to its American Income Life Insurance Company subsidiary, includes personally identifiable information, such as customer names, postal addresses, and phone numbers. In “some cases,” the data also includes Social Security numbers, health-related data and other policy information, according to the company’s filing. 

Globe Life says that approximately 5,000 individuals are known to be affected by the data breach so far, but concedes that the “total number of potentially impacted persons or the full scope of information possessed by the threat actor has not been fully verified,” suggesting that the number of affected individuals is likely to be far higher. Globe Life says it has more than 17 million policies in force, while AIL has at least two million policyholders at its last public count. 

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