Erie Insurance employees celebrate a century of steady growth
Erie Insurance serves customers in 12 states and the District of Columbia and employs more than 6,500 people in Erie and field offices.
- Erie Insurance is recovering from a June 8 cybersecurity incident, but says there is no evidence of a ransomware attack.
- The company has restored some systems but is still investigating the extent of data compromise.
Erie Insurance says it “continue(s) to make strong and steady progress” following a June 8 announcement of an information security event that prompted the company to shut down its computer systems.
The Erie-based Fortune 500 company also stressed in a June 23 update that there is no evidence of ransomware and no ongoing threat actor activity.
But the company, which does business in 12 states and Washington, D.C., didn’t rule out the possibility that data has been compromised.
The latest statement said, “We take these matters very seriously and are working diligently to identify what, if any, data may have been affected. Our investigation is ongoing, and we will continue to provide updates as we have more information.”
The statement, issued by company spokesman Matthew Cummings, also said, “The proactive network and system outage we initiated on June 7 disrupted and helped contain the threat.”
The company is working with both law enforcement and leading cybersecurity experts.
It’s not business as usual at Erie’s largest employer, but some steps have moved the company in that direction.
According to the company’s latest statement, “After a thorough review of all systems — conducted by both our team and external partners — we have safely and securely reconnected several business systems and applications.”
Customers who need to file a claim can contact their agent or the company’s First Notice of Loss team at 800-367-3743. Customer care can be reached at 800-458-0811.
Customers are being encouraged to follow best practices around personal security and notify their financial institutions of any unusual activity.
Other insurance companies appear to have been targeted
There’s plenty of evidence that the problems facing Erie Insurance aren’t unique.
According to a report last week, in Cybersecurity Dive, the insurance company Aflac confirmed it was the victim of a June 12 cyber attack. According to the online publication, that attack has been linked to a major cybercrime spree focused on the insurance industry.
Those attacks have been blamed on a collective known as Scattered Spider, which is linked to an extended attack on retailers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Aflac said it was able to contain the attack within hours and said its systems remained operational.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia Insurance Companies, a company based near Philadelphia with about 2,000 employees, continues to restore systems following a network outage affecting phone and computer systems was discovered over the weekend of June 9.
This cybersecurity challenge comes in the midst of what had been a celebratory year at Erie Insurance, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year.
As of June 23, at least five class-action lawsuits have been been filed against Erie Insurance in U.S. District Court. Those lawsuits all claim that the company failed to implement cybersecurity measures to protect the personal data of the company’s customers.
More than two weeks after the security problem was discovered, the Erie Insurance website continues to include a top-of-page announcement that says: “We are currently experiencing a network outage and investigating an information security incident.”
Customers are also being reminded that during the outage that the company will not call or email them to request payments.
Contact Jim Martin at jmartin3@gannett.com.
