The Social Security numbers of millions of South Carolinians, as well as credit and debit card information for hundreds of thousands, have been hacked in what the state's governor described Friday as an international cyberattack.
"This is not a good day for South Carolina," Gov. Nikki Haley told reporters.
The governor explained that a "server that warehouses all our taxpayer information was breached and taxpayer information was stolen."
The state's Department of Revenue explained in a press release that it first learned of a possible breach on October 10, after which the state contracted information security firm Mandiant to conduct an investigation.
The "hole" in the system was closed October 20. Over the next several days, state authorities determined that more than 3.6 million Social Security numbers may have been affected. So, too, were 387,000 credit card numbers - though only 16,000 of those were unencrypted.
On Friday, state officials laid out efforts to determine what happened and protect the personal information of taxpayers. While noting that not everyone had their information breached, Haley urged everyone who filed a tax return in South Carolina from 1998 through now to take advantage of credit protection services being offered by the state.
"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," the governor said.
...I just find it odd how the governor started hawking credit protection services through the state...anyone else find that odd? O_O...I can hear the sheep now..."TAKE MY MONEY!!!"
Why would you trust them with your money if you cant trust them with handling information properly?
I don't think you understand what they mean. More than likely, they are saying that they have made an agreement with a company like Experian or TransUnion to provide credit monitoring for free (actually, at the state's cost) to everyone who wishes to take advantage of this for some period of time (like a year). You can then sign up to be alerted for any activity that happens in your credit report. That's exactly what happened when one of the banks which serviced a previous credit card I had did when they experienced a security breach. I doubt that the state is providing the actual credit monitoring service.
I wonder how the right wing media will spin this as Obama's fault next week..
lol yeah especially since their governor is republican.
Gov. Romney knows our intelligence technology is outdated
We have the best cyberwarfare people in the world bar none. Go do some research.
WHAT WOMEN WANT: Gainful career + guiltless pregnancy management + health maintenance ---> pride + self-respect
Obambi-poo never got it - Romney knows and has something "bigger and better" to help
OK OK I GOT IT....lemme go first!!
okay so....Obamas kenyan cousin who was trained by the soviets and bill ayers....teamed up with china to hack the credit cards....in order to outsource them overseas
(later this Week)
"some say Obama Relative involved in cyber attack" – Fox News
lol
That would be His Favorite Aunt, The one who as an illegal alien facing deportation, was residing in public housing while working fo the state dept. of Social Services and had been fired from her job in an Africa Brewry for training nigerian interent scammers whom is incidentally a supposed COMPUTER IT EXPERT!!!
This is being orchestrated by Iran, or right-wing nut job.
Information technology and pride of womanhood were neglected by cute obambi-poo - small plans from small mnds -gov. romney has something "bigger and better" to fix it.
What are you, 12 years old?
Iran knows we have a deficit/high debt problem -–> Iran suspects our technology outdated
Sounds like another Republican vote suppression tactic.
Train smart women to become high-tech information and intelligence technologists ---> increase self-esteem of american womanhood and protect our nation
oohhh, another attempt to push the cyber security / PIPA / SOPA / OPEN / ACTA / CIPA garbage legislation down the throats of Americans. Our government should protect it's own stuff and GTFO the rest of our business, PERIOD. They won't though, they want full access and will get it. I can't wait to heal what all the Dems say when in 4 years we wake up with Obama running for his 3rd term.
Do you not realize that most of our important infrastructure, electrical, gas, etc., are owned and operated by private companies. Their IT security is questionable and varies from company to company. Enforcing compliance to a security baseline and following mandated best practices is the only way to insure that the appropriate levels of security are maintained. This can be very expensive. Money is tight. Where and how do we act? Do we do nothing and hope they will invest in their security and very possibly have the electric grid taken out? The Fed Gov does have the best IT capabilities in the world bar none. Perhaps the govt could help these companies reach compliance by sharing expertise and helping them to improve their capabilities without forcing costs upon them? oh wait, this administration already did that...
Old WWII slogan - "women can do!" Posters of women with biceps - let's not take it that far though - behind successful men are strong and respected women
female technologists are better than men at blocking cyber intruders -- it's that right versus left side brain thing
please go take your meds.. 🙂
Romney is totally unprepared to deal with this. He probably doesn't even have a computer.
romney has something ahead of our time-something much bigger - just what women want
men who know how to treat women right get treated back even better - obambi-poo never knew what romney knows - obambi-poo doesn't have what romney has - makes women smile 🙂