Millions of residents in South Carolina had their social security numbers, credit card and debit card information stolen on Friday during an international cyberattack.
Speaking to reporters Governor Nikki Haley said:
“This is not a good day for South Carolina.”
Haley added:
“[A] server that warehouses all our taxpayer information was breached and taxpayer information was stolen.”
The breach was first discovered by the Department of Revenue on October 10. After discovering the breach the state hired security firm Mandiant to investigate the cyber attack.
According to officials the “hole” in the system was closed on October 20. Government officials claim that upwards of 3.6 million Social Security numbers may have been affected. Also stole were 387,000 credit card numbers of which 16,000 were unencrypted.
Officials are still attempting to figure out exactly how the hack occurred. While officials admit that not every single person in the state has been affected by the breach, they also urge anyone who filed taxes in South Carolina from 1998 through the present day take advantage of credit protection services being offered for free through the state department.
According to Governor Haley:
“While we now have it protected, we want to make sure that everybody understands that our state will respond with a big, large-scale plan that is somewhat unprecedented to take care of this problem.”
Credit and debit card users are urged to continually monitor their credit card accounts and if necessary report fraud and request new card numbers.
