Erie Insurance spokesman Matt Cummings confirmed today that the network systems outage the insurance giant has been experiencing since the weekend is a confirmed cybersecurity issue, or information security event.  Company officials note that they have been working with law enforcement, and leading cybersecurity experts to conduct a forensic analysis.

Until this afternoon, Erie Insurance had not released any information on the nature of the complete system outage or its cause.  As Erie News Now first reported, the issues were initially detected last Saturday.  By Sunday, Erie News Now reported the outage, and customers were notified on the Erie Insurance Website.

Erie Insurance policy holders should be aware that the company will not call or email customers to request payments.  

Company officials have not been available to do on camera interviews on the matter.  They issued the following statement today on the ongoing outage:

On Saturday, June 7, Erie Insurance’s Information Security team identified unusual network activity. We took immediate action to respond to the situation to safeguard our systems and data. Since Saturday, we have continued to take protective action for the security of our systems. We are working with law enforcement and are conducting a comprehensive forensic analysis with the assistance of leading cybersecurity experts to gain a full understanding of this event. The investigation into this event is ongoing. We will continue to provide updates as we have more information. During this outage, Erie Insurance will not call or email customers to request payments. As is best practice, do not click any links from unknown sources or provide your personal information by phone or email. While the protective actions the company initiated are ongoing, our local agents, claims and customer care teams continue to support our customers. Policyholders who need to initiate a claim can contact their local agent or ERIE’s First Notice of Loss team at (800) 367-3743. Customer Care is also available at (800) 458-0811.

We've learned that another Pennsylvania insurance firm called Philadelphia Insurance Companies, is experiencing a similar outage.  They too have posted network outage information on their website.