Premera Blue Cross is offering free credit monitoring from Experian to help protect customers from a sophisticated online attack that potentially gave hackers access to personal information from up to 11 million of its members. But people trying to take advantage of the offer for their families are encountering some disturbing bugs in the credit monitoring site being used by the insurer.
In letters delivered over the weekend, Premera directs customers to the site http://www.familysecure.com/premera to receive free credit monitoring and identity theft for their children, whose information may have been accessed by the attack. But if customers use the common shorthand familysecure.com/premera, without the ‘www’ prefix, the site gives this error when they try to proceed.
In addition, one GeekWire reader encountered this message later on in the process: “The activation code you have entered has expired due to overwhelming response to our exclusive promotion or is invalid. You can still obtain the many benefits of Family Secure by providing your Credit Card information below.”
We’re in touch with a Premera spokesperson about the bugs and are awaiting further information from the company.
Update, 9:51 a.m.: Here’s a statement from Premera in response to our inquiry.
We have seen steady enrollment with Experian for the services we’re offering to individuals potentially affected by the cyberattack against us. We have approximately 127,000 enrollments to date in both the individual and family products, with more enrolling daily.
We did have reports of some issues, including with activation codes for the family product in the first several days these services were launched. We believe these issues have been addressed by Experian after we raised them, but appreciate the additional feedback. We’re working with Experian regularly to make sure these services have been available immediately for those who have received a letter or otherwise believe they were affected by this cyberattack.
Any consumer having difficulty signing up can also call Experian directly at 1-888-451-6558 for assistance in the enrollment process.
