“The interesting thing about the Anthem breach is that the badguys are looking for new places to find data, such as medicalinformation,” says Claire Terrell, vice president, marketing, forLegal Shield in Dallas.

The Anthem and Sony attacks demonstrate that cyber thieves arebroadening their targets, says Nick Rockwell, director of benefitsolutions, for LifeLock in Tempe, Arizona.

“Medical ID theft is a topic of great concern,” he says.“Obviously, a credit card breach is a bad thing, but you can haveit stopped. But if your Social Security number and medical ID arestolen, it can follow you around for a long time.”

Americans lost $10 billion more in identity theft in 2012 thanall other property crimes tracked by the National CrimeVictimization Survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Identitytheft cost $24.7 billion, compared with $14 billion for household,motor vehicle and property theft combined.

Anthem aftermath

Many security experts believe that health care companies such asAnthem trail other industries in protecting personal information.Hackers were able to access Social Security numbers, addresses,email, employment and income data from as many as 80 millionrecords.

Officials at Anthem say they don't know who was responsible forthe attack, although thieves may have infiltrated company networksusing a sophisticated malicious software program that gave themaccess to the log-in credential of an Anthem employee. The hackersseem to have been interested only in financial information, not themedical data shared with doctors and hospitals.

After the security theft hit the news, the phones startedringing at the offices of security providers and the brokers whomarket their services.

“Any time there is a major breach, such as Target, Sony orAnthem, we see a spike in membership demand,” Rockwell says.“Brokers and employers want to learn more. The unique thing aboutthe Anthem situation is that because it was health care instead ofcredit card information, employers and brokers found themselves inthe middle.”

The same thing happened at Identity Fraud Inc. in Walnut Creek,California.

“There definitely has been a correlation with higher demandsince Target and Anthem,” says Tom Widman, president and CEO.

These high-profile breaches, as well as the well-publicizedhacking of Sony Corp., mean cyber security no longer is aback-burner issue for many businesses.

“Demand for ID theft services continues to grow as peoplerealize it could happen to them,” Terrell says. “You may feel thatyou will not be targeted, but as you can see from the news, it'snot a matter of 'if' but 'when'.”

Voluntary benefit

An increasing number of businesses are countering cyber threatsby offering ID theft protection as a paid perk or voluntarybenefit. About 25 percent of large employers offered this benefitin 2013, according to Towers Watson. The primary reasons are toreduce employee stress and maintain productivity.

An unprotected employee could spend hours of work time trying toresolve related issues. One study found that identity theft victimsare more likely to experience financial hardship, emotionaldistress and even relationship problems.

One hurdle is that employees may believe they are protected eventhough they are not.

“A lot of consumers don't know if they are protected and wheretheir vulnerabilities are,” Rockwell says. “They may think theirbank is protecting them, but what if they use another bank? Whatabout credit cards?”

Just as with health insurance, the objective is to covervulnerable areas.

“Data theft is hard to stop,” Widman says. “An employee may losea laptop with customer data in a restaurant or airport. Someone canhack your system or you can click on the wrong link and becompromised. If there is a gap in coverage, it's important to fillthat gap.

“The same thing is true for the business itself. Roughly 27percent of small businesses think they have protection against databreach under their general liability policy but don't.”

ID protection services fall into three main categories, hesays:

• Proactive protection

• Cyber insurance

• Instant response on demand

The number of businesses providing ID theft protection hasmushroomed in recent years, and the choices can seem overwhelming.Where is the best place for a business to find reliable advice?

Brokers' role

“You can do online research, check out individual companies orgo through your benefits broker,” Terrell says. “Generally, yourbroker or insurance professional is a good place to start. Ourbrokers are a huge resource for their clients. They can helpbusinesses offer protection as a perk at no cost to employees or asa voluntary benefit.”

Companies such as LifeLock work hard to bring brokers up tospeed, not only on their services but also on how to help clientscompare and contrast options.

“Education is one of the most critical components,” Rockwellsays. “Brokers and businesses are familiar with handling insuranceproducts, where there are agreed-on principles by law for premiums,deductibles, inclusions and exclusions. For example, brokers canshow them what three carriers looked like and put the cost on thebottom line.”

However, that common language is not well established for IDprotection.

“We educate brokers that ID protection is a service, notinsurance,” he says. “There is no agreed-up lexicon, and no easybox to check when comparing services. The critical question is not'what you do?' but 'how you do it?'”

One of a broker's most important tasks is to show clients how toassess and compare their options.

“Brokers should educate their clients about how to evaluateservices and why it is different than insurance,” Rockwell says.“You often are comparing apples and oranges. It really comes backto the concept of 'how' instead of 'what'.”

ID protection service regularly ranks high on surveys of desiredvoluntary benefits. Providing this service is a high-profile way toshow employees that the company cares about their peace of mind.Unlike health insurance, where employees enroll annually and hopeit is never needed, ID protection remains visible throughout theyear.

“Think of your financial life as if it were your home,” Rockwellsays. “You can purchase homeowner's insurance, lock the doors andstill be robbed. It would be wise to include an alarm system aswell.”