The following is an open letter from Associate Vice President for Human Resource Hal Irvin to the university community.

Dear colleague,

You may have already heard that Anthem – the Commonwealth’s primary health insurance provider and the health insurance company used by the vast majority of our employees – experienced a major data breach. Virginia Tech does not manage the Anthem health insurance contract. The contract is managed by the Commonwealth’s Department of Human Resources Management.  

We learned about the breach in this morning’s news cycle, and received no prior information about it from the Commonwealth’s Department of Human Resources Management or Anthem.  The information we do know is all contained on this site from Anthem: www.anthemfacts.com/.

The FAQ section of the site above explains that it may be several weeks before the individuals who have been impacted are contacted by Anthem.  We are working closely with the Commonwealth’s Department of Human Resources Management to better understand Anthem’s next steps.  In the end, however, Anthem is in the driver’s seat with communications about how to resolve this situation.  They are responsible for what happened and responsible for communicating with the up to 80 million individuals who may have been impacted.

We care deeply about the security of the personal information of our current and former employees, and only hope that Anthem’s investigation finds that there was a limited impact on our community. We are committed to keeping you informed in the coming weeks as we become better informed about the scope of the issue and Anthem’s response.

Anthem has established a dedicated toll-free number and website that current and former Anthem customers can use if they have questions related to this incident. If you have any questions, or need assistance, please call 1-877-263-7995 or visit www.anthemfacts.com.

Thank you,

Hal Irvin,
Associate Vice President
Department of Human Resources

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