1.8 million Texans' data exposed in data breach of Department of Insurance
A massive data breach at the Texas Department of Insurance leaked the sensitive information of almost 2 million Texans for nearly 3 years.
The department said the personal information of 1.8 million workers who have filed compensation claims — including Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and information about workers’ injuries — was accessible online to members of the public from March 2019 to January 2022.
The department did not publicly acknowledge the security issue until the state auditor’s office conducted a review in March, the auditor’s office said. On Mar. 24, the Department of Insurance sent out a notice acknowledging it became aware of the issue in January.
The breach occurred because of an issue in the programming code in the department’s web application that manages workers’ compensation data. The issue in the code allowed members of the public to access a protected part of that online application, the department said.
Texas Department of Insurance spokesperson Ben Gonzalez said the department temporarily disconnected the web application from the internet after identifying the breach.
We found the issue was due to programming code that allowed internet access to a protected area of the application. We fixed the programming code issue and put the TDI web application back online. We began an investigation to find the nature and scope of the issue.
He also said the victims of the breach work for several employers who have workers’ compensation insurance coverage and that letters were sent out to the affected individuals TDI has identified to notify them of the incident.
The state’s insurance department said it would provide 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity protection services to individuals whose data was breached.
Italy's Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) also has disclosed recent DDoS attacks against crucial government sites in the country over the past couple of days.