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.
Let's follow Mitt's lead....build umpteen more aircraft carriers and battleships to fight this kind of war!!!!!! yes...this is sarcasm.....
There should be a sarcasm font so no one would need to awkwardly point it out for those with no sense of humor.
You could just use the html tags, as follows:
Let's follow Mitt's lead....build umpteen more aircraft carriers and battleships to fight this kind of war!!!!!!
Oops! Even though those are not REAL html tags, apparently the filter on this board sees them as such and blocks them.
As Emily Latella would have said, "Well, that's very different then. Nevermind!"
The best solution is for state govs to pool into an in the cloud solution. This 24/7 security is available with live personnel monitoring and is what the banks use. its plug and play and then the states IP address is completely hidden so attacks are watched and they never get in.
You seriously think that could cannot be hacked. wow!!
Great idea! Put ALL the data on some computers somewhere, under control by someone, with some type of security, then rest assured all is well. dumaz.
There is absolutely NO REASON to put SSN's, credit cards, personal info on the Internet. None whatsoever. Never.
Same goes for utilities – water, nukes, electric, gas. Who came up with these stupid ideas?
Either you didn't read the article, you are stupid or just a troll. Your prefix is for Mississippi.
While Obama cuts spending to our Military Russian and Chinese spys are infiltrating our information online because obama wants to cut spending shame on Obama !
This administration has invested more in IT security and cyber threat management and mitigation than any other in history period. The bad guys are bad and the risks are great but we still have superior capability. This is not meant to be political, it is simple fact. I know, I work in that world. This is a serious topic that deserves serious consideration beyond the political BS. To fully protect our infrastructure, most of which is owned & managed by private companies, would require regulations to enforce compliance. That is expensive. A lot of our infrastructure has an inadequate level of protection from cyber attack. It varies from company to company. We know it and so do the bad guys. This administration has managed to help these companies dramatically improve their security posture without negatively affecting them financially. We are still at great risk as the threat continues to evolve but so do we.
That witch of a Govenor should pay more attention to South Carolina and the poor people in her state and stay out of politics. Deport Haley she is a loser.
The other OldITGuy is correct. This administration is pushing cybersecurity. The problem is that idjits in State governments actually put databases containing thus information on the Internet and then dream that they can protect it. They can't.
@OldTGuy:
"The bad guys are bad and the risks are great but we still have superior capability."
After reading the article, who can say we have superior capability. Why are you putting this info on the Internet – that is NOT superior capability.
The president isn't the party that either cuts spending or spends money. that is congress. You obviously have no idea how government works. The is South Carolina one of the GOP states who obviously does not spend money on internet security. IT has nothing to do with the federal government.
I Guess CA is lucky too. We always change are passwords, and always have an anti-virus/anti-hacker proof programs that get tested everyday. So yes I read the article, that so sad for seniors who's social security is SC was stolen. I hope they find the person who did this and make them pay the price, by re-sending all the stolen SSN back to those it was stolen from.
or he is promoting some sort of security service (ie lifelock)... Starting to believe these types of security services are contracting out work to scare people into using their services...-_-
Sounds just shady and manipulative enough to be true!
Zulux, Your joke cracked me up so bad I could not stop laughing!
To make it worst and as I could not breath some idiots took it seriously!
How conveinient and a Battleground state too... I don't know that it was necessarily money they were after... I'd be mor inclined to think Campain donations, and Voter Fraud... and it was an accident that it was discovered before the General Election...
I don't think SC is a battleground state.
Yeah, we stole 3.6 million credit card and SS numbers, by ACCIDENT!
SORRY!
South Carolina is a GOP state, not a battleground state. I believe you mean North Carolina which is a battleground state but which did not have their computers hacked.
Thank you for sharing this very important news since so many people have left SC over the years since 1998 and need to be notified so they can take steps to protect themselves!
@lgbarn Interesting concept. So someone issued a SS number in Mississippi cannot pay taxes in SC?
Maybe it was Donald Trump who hacked into the computer, he was looking for Mitt the Lying Twitts tax returns, or he needed money to buy a new hair piece, that man is so ugly he just right to use as a scarecrow.
Well, it's a good thing Bill Clinton already raided this fund and stole all the money already to balance the budget. lol
That is soo stupid it really should not be dignified with a response. Are you like 11 yrs old? Or you just have your head in the sand and know nothing aboiut history? Read a history book!
Thank you for placing blame where it belongs, That along with Deregulating the Banks is what realy has caused this Economic meltdown... On a Brighter note, Ruferto is doing fine and wishes for me to say HI for him and when will you be bringing him more cheezdip!!!
South Carolina people are uneducated and fat. The GOP is a cult party thats why the red states always vote gop.. Mitt the Lying Twitt is their cult leader (Mormon).
Wrong. On the TV maps, the Red states are Republican, the Blue are democrat. THAT is why the red states vote GOP. Dumaz
You are so very wrong! I am a SC resident and I am neither fat nor uneducated! I am a collage graduate, I am 5'9" weighing 145! Perhaps you need a new mirror before you make such statements?
Yyou are safe. Not a thing to worry about. I checked and your SSN is NOT on the list.
who cares?