21K Minnesota Citizen’s Exposed in Government Breach
Within the last week, the Minnesota Department of Human Services confirmed falling victim to a security breach. The breach was executed when two department employees clicked on a malicious email. The origin of the phishing email remains unclear.
As a result of the breach, approximately 21,000 individuals who interacted with the department were exposed. The data breached include those who engaged with DHS between October 2010 and July 2018, primarily within the State Medical Review Team.
Last week the department sent letters to everyone whose information may have been accessed.
Since confirming the breach Minnesota’s IT services have secured the accounts and stopped the spread of additional malicious emails. Thus far, the investigative team has not been able to find any evidence that the information breached has been compromised.
DHS officials stated to KSTP News,
“The Minnesota Department of Human Services takes very seriously our responsibility to protect the private information and data of Minnesotans, and will continue our vigilant efforts to uphold the highest standards of IT security and data privacy.”
