In the notice, the county said it had been targeted by a global cybersecurity breach affecting the common file transfer tool MOVEit, which the county uses.
The cyber criminals responsible for the breach are known as CL0p, a Russian-speaking hacking organization believed to be based in Russia, the alert said.
CL0p maintains it focused on targeting businesses and will delete data from organizations, including governments, but the county is still encouraging individuals to take precautionary measures to protect their personal information.
The county said the impacted data varies based on each person's relationship with Allegheny County. The CL0p breach involved data such as: name; Social Security number; date of birth; driver's license/state ID number; taxpayer ID number; and student ID numbers. For some, some types of medical information (e.g., diagnosis, treatment type, admission date), health insurance information, and billing/claim information may be involved.
The county said citizens can find out if their data was breached by calling a dedicated call center — 888-990-1333, with representatives available from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Allegheny County said it will offer 24 months of free identity protection services to affected individuals whose Social Security numbers were involved in this incident. To enroll in the complimentary ID protection services, contact IDX at 888-990-1333. The deadline to enroll is Oct. 31.
Those affected by the breach should monitor their credit for things such as new credit inquiries.
Joyce Hanz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joyce by email at jhanz@triblive.com or via Twitter .
© 2023 The Valley News-Dispatch (Tarentum, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
