One in two French people affected by this danger: the little-known risks of hacking health data

Hacking of health data: 1 in 2 French people affected

The National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties (CNIL) is warning. Viamedis and Almerys, two operators managing third-party payment for numerous complementary health and mutual insurance companies, suffered a cyberattack targeting the data of nearly 33 million people. Are you concerned ? How to react ? Elements of response.

At the end of January, Viamedis and Almerys, two operators which manage third-party payment for complementary health insurance, suffered a computer attack, threatening the data of 33 million French people. The CNIL has therefore decided to launch an investigation.

What data is affected ?

"The data concerned are, for the insured and their family, marital status, date of birth and social security number, name of the health insurer as well as the guarantees of the contract subscribed", alert the CNIL. On the other hand, "data such as banking information, medical data, health reimbursements, postal details, telephone numbers or even emails would not be affected."

How to know if you're affected ?

Unfortunately, there is no action to check this. But if you are concerned, your complementary service should quickly inform you individually.

And if you are a person whose data has been leaked, the CNIL advises you:

To be cautious with regard to requests that you may receive, in particular those concerning reimbursement of health costs; To periodically check the activities and movements on your various accounts.

And in general, to protect against possible fraud attempts via the Internet or by SMS:

Stay attentive to the sender of the message, even if it looks like an official sender; Pay attention to the content and wording of the message received; Beware of attachments; Never respond to a request for banking information that you did not request; Change your passwords regularly.