More than 300,000 Minnesotans were affected by the massive data security breach reported earlier this month by health insurer Anthem Inc., and the Indianapolis-based company plans to send letters soon about the incident.
On Monday, Anthem reported to state officials that about 206,800 Minnesotans could have their Social Security numbers at risk from the cyberattack, according to the Commerce Department.
In addition, about 106,800 Minnesota consumers had other data compromised, including names, health identification numbers, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, employment information and income data, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Anthem has said it is not aware of any fraudulent activity against policyholders that has occurred as a result of the data breach, according to the state.
"Letters will begin going out next week in Minnesota and the other states where consumers were impacted," wrote Tony Felts, a spokesman for Anthem, in an e-mail. "The mailing is expected to take several weeks."
Anthem said the breach affected a total of 78.8 million people, slightly less than its earlier estimates.
Commerce estimates that about 6 percent of Minnesota residents were potentially affected by the Anthem data breach.
Mike Rothman, the Commerce Department commissioner, said in an interview that Minnesotans affected by the incident should consider taking advantage of credit monitoring and identity theft prevention being offered by Anthem.