Health insurer Aetna, Inc., is reportedly providing 65,000 individuals with free credit monitoring for a year after its job application Web site was breached, the Associated Press has reported.

The Web site, which was maintained by an outside vendor, had Social security numbers of current and past employees and individuals who received job offers from the insurer, the AP reported.

The site reportedly held e-mail addresses for about 450,000 individuals who had applied for jobs or submitted resumes to the company and were waiting to be notified about job openings. Spokeswoman Cynthia Michener said Aetna doesn't know how many were copied, but the site has been disabled and is undergoing a "thorough forensic review" by an outside company.

"We know for certain that the e-mails were accessed. We don't know whether or not anything else was accessed, but we're erring on the side of caution. We want people to know," Michener told the AP.

The Aetna homepage contains an alert that says "spammers have sent emails claiming to be responding to a job inquiry from the recipient and requesting personal information. These emails are not from Aetna, but may appear to be. As with any suspicious e-mail, if you receive one, please delete it and do not forward the message."

This is not the first time the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer has had to provide free credit monitoring services. In April 2006, Aetna notified approximately 38,000 members that an employee's laptop computer containing certain personal member information was stolen from a car in a public parking lot.

Aetna CEO and President Ronald A. William said at the time, "In this case, our employee did not follow our corporate policies, and it was coupled with a criminal theft. In light of this, we are augmenting our efforts to ensure employee compliance with all Aetna security requirements."