Majority of 1.4M customers caught in Allianz Life data heist

Financial services biz Allianz says the majority of customers of one of its North American subsidiaries had their data stolen in a cyberattack. Lawyers acting on behalf of US-based Allianz Life filed a breach notification with Maine's attorney general on Saturday, saying the intrusion began on July 16 and was detected a day later. Official filings did not state how many people were affected, or what data was compromised, although in a statement to The Register, Allianz said the majority of its 1.4 million customers were impacted. "The threat actor was able to obtain personally identifiable data related to the majority of Allianz Life's customers, financial professionals, and select Allianz Life employees, using a social engineering technique," a spokesperson said. Allianz went on to say that the attacker or attackers gained access to Allianz Life's third-party, cloud-based CRM system, although it did not confirm the vendor supplying that system. "We took immediate action to contain and mitigate the issue and notified the FBI," the spokesperson added. "Based on our investigation to date, there is no evidence the Allianz Life network or other company systems were accessed, including our policy administration system. "Our investigation is ongoing, and we began the process of reaching out to individuals impacted with dedicated resources to assist them." Allianz also did not answer questions about the type of data affected or who is suspected to be behind the attack. Scattered Spi...