The confidential private information of 1.8 million Texans was uncovered and accessible to the general public for nearly three years, in accordance with a state audit report launched final week. Info together with names, Social Safety numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and dates of start of Texans who filed employees’ compensation claims with the Texas Division of Insurance coverage was publicly accessible on-line from March 2019 till January 2022.
The unauthorized disclosure resulted from a glitch within the programming code of the division’s internet software that manages employees’ compensation data, the division mentioned.
TDI turned conscious of the issue on Jan. 4, took the applying offline and stuck the difficulty, the division mentioned in a public discover launched in March. In January, TDI started working with a forensic firm to research the total nature and scope of the incident and decide “whose data was or might need been considered by folks outdoors of TDI,” the division mentioned.
“The forensic investigation couldn’t conclusively rule out that sure data on the internet software was accessed outdoors of TDI. This doesn’t imply all the data was considered by folks outdoors TDI,” the division mentioned in an up to date press launch Tuesday. “Up to now, we’re not conscious of any misuse of the data.”
Along with reviewing insurance policies, procedures and safety efforts, TDI is providing 12 months of credit score monitoring and identification safety companies at no cost to affected people.
Regardless of elevated consciousness of information safety points, incidents like this show that information leaks and breaches are an issue that does not appear to be getting higher. Final yr, information breaches set a document excessive, they usually’re already up 14% within the first quarter of this yr, in contrast with final yr’s ranges. Tens of millions of persons are affected by main information breaches hitting high-profile firms seemingly yearly.
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