State Data Leak Impacts Thousands of Floridians

No hacking was required in the latest in a long list of data breaches that may serve to part people from their money.

Rather than nefarious criminals at the root of this particular breach, it seems about 13,000 Floridians have the state to thank for the “inadvertent release of confidential information.”

The Florida Department of State announced the breach late last week, just before the long Memorial Day weekend kicked off.

“Individuals potentially affected by this inadvertent disclosure of confidential information, which was released as part of recent public records requests, include approximately 13,000 persons on a wait list for developmental disability health care services from 2003, whose names, dates of birth, and social security numbers were included in an email,” the department announced in a media release.

It seems the email in question was among those sent to and from former Gov. Jeb Bush during his time in office. Bush’s emails have been the subject of a number of recent public records requests. The disability waiting list was inadvertently included in the documents made public, the department of state said.

See Also:

• Victims of Target Data Breach Could Receive Up to $10k
• Home Depot Confirms Data Breach

What Possible Victims Can Do to Protect Themselves

People who fear their information may have been leaked are urged to call 1-850-245-6068. They are also asked to take a close look at their credit histories for any fraudulent or suspicious activity.

The state also recommends that those affected place fraud alerts on their credit files. This type of alert lets creditors know to contact individuals directly before opening new lines of credit in their names. Possible victims should call the three major credit reporting agencies to have alerts placed. The numbers are:

• Experian – 1-888-397-3742
• Equifax – 1-888-766-0008
• TransUnion – 1-800-680-7289

People may also receive a free credit report annually by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com.

To further protect those potentially compromised by the information release, the state has arranged to purchase LifeLock identity theft protection for affected parties. Those who believe their social security information was released may call 1-850-245-6068 to find out how to get LifeLock services courtesy of the state.

Florida’s information release came just days before the IRS announced its own massive data breach. The federal agency has announced that hackers managed to employ an online service to potentially obtain information related to more than 100,000 taxpayers. The IRS is now in the process of notifying those who information was accessed by the hackers, Fox news reported.

Image via Shutterstock

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