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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Farmers Insurance suffered a major data breach.
- More than 1 million customers were affected.
- Affected customers are receiving free credit monitoring.
If you’re a Farmers Insurance customer, you’re going to want to pay attention — and probably keep an eye on all of your important accounts.
According to a notice on the Farmers website, about 1.1 million customers had sensitive data revealed in a recent data breach. Compromised information includes customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and/or last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
While Farmers didn’t explain the exact details, it said that the incident came from a compromised third-party database. It didn’t name the third party.
Farmers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The incident happened on May 29, and the company discovered it the next day, but customers are just now finding out.
What should affected customers do
If you were a part of this breach, you should have received a written notice this week or last with details on the incident. But if you’ve changed addresses since (or just don’t check your physical mail that often), you could have missed that message.
Farmers said it isn’t aware that personal information was misused, but it’s still encouraging customers to stay vigilant by taking a close look at their account statements and credit reports. To help, it’s providing free access to Cyberscout Single Bureau Credit Monitoring service for 24 months. The written communication contained information about how to claim this monitoring. You can get more information or check your eligibility for free identity-monitoring services by calling 1-833-426-6809.
It’s also not a bad idea to check your credit report with all three major agencies or even freeze your credit, even if you weren’t affected by this specific breach.
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