California County Says Personal Information Compromised in Data Breach

The County of Tehama, California, has started informing employees, recipients of services, and affiliates that their personal information might have been compromised in a data breach.

The incident, Tehama County says, was identified on April 9, but the investigation into the matter stretched to August 19, when it was determined that personally identifiable information (PII) was compromised.

The investigation revealed that an unauthorized third-party had access to the county’s systems between November 18, 2021, and April 9, 2022, and that files on the county’s department of social services systems were accessed.

“The County of Tehama determined that information pertaining to certain current and former County of Tehama employees, recipients of services from the County of Tehama Department of Social Services, and other affiliated individuals was contained in one or more of those files,” the county says.

Compromised information included names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and details about the services that the impacted individuals might have received from the social services department.

In a notification letter sent to the impacted individuals, a copy of which was submitted to the California Attorney General’s office, the county says that it has not received reports of fraud related to the incident, but recommends that impacted individuals remain vigilant.

“The County of Tehama is offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to individuals whose Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers were involved,” the county says.

Tehama County has yet to reveal the number of impacted individuals.

The county did not share details on the type of cyberattack it fell victim to, but, back in June, the Quantum ransomware operators published on their leaks website roughly 32 gigabytes of data allegedly stolen from the county’s systems.

The stolen data reportedly includes financial details, human resources information, payroll files, PII, IDs, birth certificates, incident reports, Covid vaccine cards, medical information, insurance information, criminal record documents, and other confidential documents.

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