In a notice of data security incident published May 12, county officials stated letters were sent to citizens impacted by the attack.
The county acknowledged cybercriminals gained access to its network between Jan 18 and 22. The attack was detected by the county Jan 22 and it was determined data was taken by the criminals.
A review was completed April 16 that determined the information involved, who was affected and where the victims live.
“As soon as we learned about this incident, our team immediately began the process of securing our network and initiating an investigation. We are cooperating with the FBI investigation into this incident,” the county stated. “To further enhance our safeguards and to help prevent similar occurrences in the future, we took steps to strengthen network security. Additionally, we notified all appropriate state regulators.”
The notice says the following citizen information may have been breached:
- Names
- Addresses
- Social Security numbers
- Driver’s license or state identification card numbers
- Medical information
- Information from law enforcement reports
- Financial account information
- Person master Index numbers
- Payment card information including the Card Verification Value number and expiration dates
- Online account name and password information
Online account information and payment information was only exposed for a small number of people, the county said.
The county recommends people impact should stay vigilant about any potential fraud or identity theft by checking account statements and credit reports regularly. Any potential identity theft should also be reported to local law enforcement, along with the state attorney general and major credit bureaus.
The notice is only related to the January attack, not a separate ransomware attack that occurred against the county in April. Little public information has been released about the scope or impact of the April attack.
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