Yesterday the Governor announced that the South Carolina Department of Revenue suffered a data breach affecting millions of South Carolina residents. “This is not a good day for South Carolina,” is how Gov. Nikki Haley began a Friday afternoon press conference with other state officials at SLED offices in Columbia.
“The state of South Carolina has come under attack by an international hacker,” Haley said before explaining that 3.6 million Social Security numbers had been stolen and 387,000 credit/debit cards were exposed when a vast database maintained by the SC Department of Revenue was hacked into.
State officials say the database that was hacked contained personal information belonging to taxpayers stretching back 14 years.
So now that just about everyone who has filed a S.C. tax return since 1998 is a potential victim of identity theft, how should they go about trying to protect themselves?
The West Ashley Patch has done a great job of explaining what steps South Carolina residents should take to protect themselves from identity theft so rather than rehashing what they covered, we’re reprinting an excerpt from that article here.
What should the 3.6 million South Carolinians whose personal information was stolen by hackers do to protect themselves now?
More than 3 million South Carolina residents are asking, “Now what?”
They’re getting a crash course in dealing with identity theft following Friday’s revelation that a foreign hacker stole 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit card numbers from a S.C. Department of Revenue database.
State officials say the database that was hacked contained personal information belonging to taxpayers stretching back 14 years.
So now that just about everyone who has filed a S.C. tax return since 1998 is a potential victim of identity theft, how should they go about trying to protect themselves?
First, you need to call the phone number the state has set up (1-866-578-5422) to find out if your information was stolen. If so, you’ll get to sign up for the year of credit monitoring and identity theft protection Gov. Nikki Haley said the state would provide for anyone affected.