Breach of Washington State Database May Expose Personal Info of Millions (apnews.com) 11
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Associated Press: The Washington State Department of Licensing said the personal information of potentially millions of licensed professionals may have been exposed after it detected suspicious activity on its online licensing system. The agency licenses about 40 categories of businesses and professionals, from auctioneers to real estate agents, and it shut down its online platform temporarily after learning of the activity in January, agency spokesperson Christine Anthony said Friday. Data stored on the system, which is called POLARIS, could include Social Security numbers, birth dates and driver's licenses. The agency doesn't yet know whether such data was actually accessed or how many individuals may have been affected, Anthony said.
Anthony said the agency has been working with the state Office of Cybersecurity, the state Attorney General's Office and a third-party cybersecurity firm to understand the scope of the incident, The Seattle Times reported Friday. In the meantime, the shutdown of the POLARIS system is causing problems for some professionals and firms that need to apply for, renew or modify their licensing. The size of the breach remains unclear. Data from 23 professions and business types licensed by the state is processed via POLARIS, Anthony said. Within those 23 categories, which also include bail bonds agents, funeral directors, home inspectors and notaries, the agency has around 257,000 active licenses in its system, Anthony said, adding that "there are likely more records that may be identified while conducting our investigation."
Anthony said the agency has been working with the state Office of Cybersecurity, the state Attorney General's Office and a third-party cybersecurity firm to understand the scope of the incident, The Seattle Times reported Friday. In the meantime, the shutdown of the POLARIS system is causing problems for some professionals and firms that need to apply for, renew or modify their licensing. The size of the breach remains unclear. Data from 23 professions and business types licensed by the state is processed via POLARIS, Anthony said. Within those 23 categories, which also include bail bonds agents, funeral directors, home inspectors and notaries, the agency has around 257,000 active licenses in its system, Anthony said, adding that "there are likely more records that may be identified while conducting our investigation."
Any information required by government (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Any information required by anyone (Score:3)
will be leaked/stolen. It is what everyone does. Collect information and mishandle/misuse it.
FTFY.
Re: (Score:2)
Ya, they should keep your private information with private companies, then it would be safe. Even their appellation bespeaks safe.
are these licenses a source of identity theft? (Score:2)
I understand that the recent Drivers License number data breaches (good job T-Mobile!) can result in fraudulent credit applications and even identity theft. But what can a criminal do with a real estate agent's number. (yes, I realize driver license numbers were also taken in some of these. which is why I already mentioned it)
Fraud (Score:3)
The number of real estate scams are nearly infinite. I was talking to a guy who ran a title agency, and the email account for a listing agent was hacked. Someone sent an email saying to wire a down payment for a house to a specific bank account. The title company relayed that to the buyer's agent, and the buyer wired the money to the bank account, which the scammer promptly cashed out and closed. It was something like $60,000 - gone in an instant.
Re: (Score:2)
A Broken system by design.
Re: (Score:3)
We all know (Score:2)
Of course, we all know if the US Gov mandates back-doors in all encryption this will never happen/s
Imagine that this was the IRS with their selfies (Score:2)
Millions of personal records with a picture out on the streets, all for grabs by foreign intelligence agencies.
This would be easier than scraping Facebook.
IRS! Are you paying attention? (Score:2)