by Keith Lubsen

Express Scripts was threatened with extortion to pay up or else millions of their customers personal data records will be put out.

The company received a letter in October 2008 that included the personal information (including SSN) for 75 of its customers along with the notice of extortion.

Now several large groups of customers of Express Scripts have received similar letters of extortion.

Express Scripts CEO George Paz said his company has no intention of paying the extortion price and will assist law enforcement to find the criminals.

A $1 million dollar reward is being offered by Express Scripts for information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the extortionists.

Additionally, the company hired Kroll (a NY consulting group) to offer assistance to customers who become victims of identity theft due to the data breach.

This large scale data breach and extortion is a good example of why it is vital for companies to consider the security of their customers data a top priority.