The Impact of the Medical Data Breach"-The Anthem Case and National Security, 2015

The Impact of the Medical Data Breach"-The Anthem Case and National Security, 2015

In February 2015, Ansem, a major U.S. health insurance company, suffered an unprecedented cyber attack that resulted in the leak of personal information of approximately 78 million people. The information included names, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, and other extremely important information, and the national security risk was considered enormous. The investigation revealed that the attack was a highly targeted attack by Chinese hackers, who allegedly hid for a long period of time and stole the data. U.S. authorities strongly suspect the possibility of Chinese government involvement and positioned the incident as part of the cyber hegemony struggle between the U.S. and China.

The mid-2010s was a time when the U.S. began to recognize cyberspace as a security battlefield, and the Anthem incident marked a new phase in the targeting of basic life data, namely medical insurance information, following the Snowden incident in 2013 and the Sony Pictures attack in 2014. Leaked information on military and government personnel can be misused for espionage and blackmail, and vast amounts of medical data can also become a strategic resource through AI analysis.

The incident led to widespread recognition that medical data is a national asset, and the Obama administration enacted the Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing Act (CISA) in 2015. A defense system was put in place through collaboration between the government and the private sector. The Anthem incident demonstrated the direct connection between individual lives and national security in cyberspace, and cast a deep shadow over international relations as a symbol of the U.S.-China "Cyber Cold War.