Erie Insurance Experiencing Business Disruption Due to Cyberattack
Pennsylvania-based Erie Indemnity Corp., which does business as Erie Insurance, is investigating a network intrusion. Erie Insurance is a Fortune 500 company that provides a range of insurance policies, including life insurance, auto insurance, cyber insurance, and Medicare supplements.
According to a recent Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), unusual network activity was identified on June 7, 2025. Its incident response protocols were immediately implemented to safeguard its systems and sensitive data, and law enforcement was notified. Erie Insurance is assisting with the police investigation and has engaged a leading third-party cybersecurity firm to determine the full scope, nature, and impact of the incident, and has confirmed it is continuing to take protective measures.
Since the investigation has only recently been launched, it is too early to tell to what extent, if any, policyholders’ information has been exposed or stolen. Erie Insurance has approximately 7 million policyholders in the United States. The company has confirmed that the unusual network activity was the result of a cyberattack and that it has been experiencing widespread outages and business disruptions. The incident has affected access to its customer portal, making it hard to submit claims, and there have reportedly been delays in receiving paperwork from the company. Those disruptions are consistent with a ransomware attack, but Erie Insurance has not yet confirmed if ransomware was used, and no ransomware group is known to have claimed responsibility for the attack.
While there has been no confirmation of the group behind the attack, one of the likely culprits is a group known as Scattered Spider. Scattered Spider is an English-speaking hacking group whose operatives are thought to reside in the United States and the United Kingdom. The group has recently conducted high-profile attacks on the retail sector, including Marks & Spencer and the Co-op in the United Kingdom. The group tends to a single sector at a time, targeting large companies, and the insurance industry was recently warned by the Google Threat Assessment Group that Scattered Spider had its sights set on the sector. There have also recently been attacks on Aflac, the largest provider of supplemental health insurance products in the United States, and Philadelphia Insurance Companies.
Get The FREE
HIPAA Compliance Checklist
Immediate Delivery of Checklist Link To Your Email Address
Please Enter Correct Email Address
Your Privacy Respected
HIPAA Journal Privacy Policy
In a website Information Security Event notification, Erie Insurance explained that during the current outage, it will not be contacting customers via telephone or email to request payments. All policyholders have been advised to exercise caution and not click any links in emails from unknown sources or share any personal information via phone or email. Policyholders looking to initiate a claim have been advised to call their local agents, First Notice of Loss team, or customer care teams as normal. It is unclear whether there has been any attempted misuse of policyholders’ data or if the website warning to its policyholders was issued purely out of an abundance of caution.
While the investigation is still in the early stages and a data breach has yet to be confirmed, at least two class action lawsuits have already been filed over the cyberattack, one by a policyholder and one by a former employee. Both lawsuits make similar claims, including negligence for failing to implement reasonable and appropriate cybersecurity measures, and both seek more than $5 million in damages.
