Saturday, October 27, 2012

URGENT - South Carolina Data Security Breach!

The South Carolina Department of Revenue had a large and unprecedented security breach that went on for ten days before it was stopped.  3.6 million social security numbers and 387,000 credit card numbers were exposed by the hackers, though only 16,000 of the credit card numbers were unencrypted.

Anyone who has filed a tax return in SC since 1998 should call the number provided by the SC DOR.  They will be able to find out if they were compromised and, if they were, get free credit monitoring from Experian.  The phone number was overwhelmed initially, but the SC DOR said it plans on increasing the number of lines and operators.

Here is a quote from the press release with the phone number:

Anyone who has filed a South Carolina tax return since 1998 is urged to visit protectmyid.com/scdor or call 1- 866-578-5422 to determine if their information is affected. If so, the taxpayer can immediately enroll in one year of identity protection service provided by Experian.
 
Here is a link to the full release:  http://www.sctax.org/News+Releases/20121009_1026NR.htm

No comments:

Post a Comment

I will try to answer questions, though if they are complicated, email me at taxadvisor@email.com. Consider buying one of my books to thank me for my answers. Spam comments will be deleted. No links unless they are pertinent to the question asked. If you want cross promotion - ask.