People affiliated with
Pacific Guardian Life Insurance Co. may have had their identities compromised after a data breach, the company said in a letter.
According to the Feb. 18 letter received by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the company found that there had been unauthorized access to an employee’s email account, which may have included names and Social Security numbers.
“While there is no evidence to suggest any data potentially involved in this issue has been misused, we are sending you this letter to inform you of the incident and to share steps you can take to help protect your information,” including complimentary identity theft protection services, Pacific Guardian Life said in the letter.
Those complimentary services include 12 months of credit monitoring, a
$1 million insurance reimbursement policy and “fully managed identity theft recovery services.”
It is unclear who the letter was addressed to and how many people were
affected by the data breach. Pacific Guardian Life was not immediately available to comment on this story.
The company “became aware of suspicious activity within an employee’s email account” on Nov. 4 that led to an internal investigation, and on Nov. 21 it determined that emails on the account may have been viewed or downloaded.
It said that on Jan. 21 “our investigation revealed that some of your personal information may have been contained within the affected email account.”
Other than names and Social Security numbers, Pacific Guardian Life did not mention in the letter other data that may have been
affected.
It said it has taken steps to minimize the likelihood of the incident happening again, including working with cybersecurity experts to review its network’s
security.
Pacific Guardian Life was founded in 1961 and, according to its website, offers both personal and business insurance products, including temporary disability insurance, group term life insurance and long-term disability. It has offices listed in Hawaii and California but says it also has a presence in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.