Erie Insurance employees celebrate a century of steady growth
Erie Insurance serves customers in 12 states and the District of Columbia and employs more than 6,500 people in Erie and field offices.
- Erie Insurance assures customers that no late payment penalties will be applied for those unable to pay during the outage.
- Full online account functionality is expected to be restored soon.
(This story was updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)
Nearly three weeks after a network security incident shut down the Erie Insurance computer network, customers are once again able to pay their bills online.
The company also confirmed that there will be no penalties assessed to customers who have not been able to make payments during the system outage.
“In addition to the claims and customer service support we have provided throughout this situation, customers can now make one-time account payments online at ErieInsurance.com,” Matthew Cummings, spokesman for Erie Insurance, said in a statement.
He added that full online account functionality will be available as soon as possible.
It has become apparent, however, that safely restarting such a massive and complex computer system isn’t like turning on the lights.
“While the proactive and protective outages we initiated on June 7 disrupted and helped contain the threat, we also recognize those actions caused other operational challenges,” Cummings said in a statement.
“Our recovery process — supported by some of the nation’s leading cybersecurity experts and guided by our values and founding principles — is intentional, phased and prioritized to ensure we continue to do the right thing and put service above all else.”
He confirmed that as of June 27 that the company has found no evidence of ransomware and no ongoing threat activity.
A message at the top of the Erie Insurance website provides a quick summary of the company’s status. It says, “We continue to make strong and steady progress toward resuming normal business operations.”
Cummings also said provisions will be made for customers who could not make electronic payments during this shutdown.
“We’ll work with customers who were unable to make a payment during this time,” he said. “Late payment fees will not apply if a customer was not able to pay their bill during the system outage.”
The company, which does business in 12 states and Washington, D.C., has 7 million policies in force.
Concern that personal data tied to those customers has been exposed has been cited as the motivation for eight class-action federal lawsuits that have been filed against the company so far in June.
Cummings said, “We strongly dispute the claims and information included in these filings and will vigorously defend ourselves against them.”
Contact Jim Martin at [email protected].
Leave a Reply