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1,026 Individuals possibly impacted by Email Account Breach of Dakota County Employee

 

A release was issued by Dakota County, Minnesota, on April 12, 2019, to say that it came to know about one data security incident involving Protected Health Information (PHI) maintained by the Social Services Department of Dakota County.

 

On Feb. 13, 2019, Dakota County discovered that an unauthorized individual has hacked one of their employees email account, and then accessed that email account as well. Upon learning about this incident, the Dakota County has taken steps to secure further its email system as well as the network. This includes resetting passwords of all the employee email accounts, as well as setting another authentication layer for having remote access to Dakota County network.

 

An investigation has also been launched by the Dakota County, for which it engaged an independent third-party cybersecurity experts in order to provide them assistance. On Mar. 27, 2019, Dakota County due to this investigation learned that a few of the messages within the compromised email account contains information belonging to the current as well as former clients of the Dakota County. The compromised email account may contain private information such as names, Social Security numbers, addresses, driver's license numbers, medical histories, diagnoses information, treatment information, and health insurance information. The Dakota County does not have any news about misuse of the private information that is involved in this data security incident.

 

The Dakota County said that notification letters have already been sent to all the 1026 possibly impacted individuals on Apr. 12, 2019. These notification letters include information regarding this incident, and also steps that the potentially impacted individuals could take in order to monitor and then help protect private information. The County has further established one toll-free call center in order to answer the questions regarding this incident, as well as address related concerns.

 

Moreover, as a matter of precaution, free identity protection services by ID Experts have been offered by the Dakota County to possibly impacted individuals affected by this breach. The County further notified U.S. Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights along with the consumer reporting agencies about this incident.

 

Dakota County takes security of all the information very seriously, and so the County deeply regrets any concern or inconvenience this incident may have caused.

 

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