Information Security Breaches By Judy Payne, Executive Director, SDPAA You’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating – it’s not a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when” a local governmental entity or any other business or organization will suffer an information security breach. Many public entities will suffer a data breach event in the near term. Many have already sustained a breach but failed to identify it. Information security breach incidents can occur internally and externally. They can be accidental or intentional. They may be caused by lost devices, inadvertent leaks of data, disgruntled employees, system glitches, vendors and subcontractors, hackers, and unsecured websites. Although we hear a lot about Chinese hackers, according to a recent post from Business Insurance magazine, it’s probably much more likely that you will be penetrated by employee error or malfeasance than a Chinese hacker. Local government entities’ records may include employee personnel files containing protected information, law enforcement data containing protected information, financial data including bank account numbers which
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could allow hackers to siphon funds in accounts, county voter registration lists which contain Social Security numbers, bank accounts and credit card numbers of citizens who have utility bills paid via EFT, protected information regarding citizens who receive benefits from local governments, Clerk of Courts records which may contain Social Security numbers and other protected personal data of county residents. Here are some examples of public entity breaches: j A town in Washington had to warn residents that they could be the target of identity theft after hackers compromised a system used to run an online automatic utility billing system, emptying $400,000 from a city bank account. j An employee in a city in Florida accidentally gave the public temporary internet access to restricted city documents containing 330 city employees’ Social Security numbers. j A hacker broke into a town’s bank account in New York and stole $378,000 by transferring funds to banks in Ukraine.
SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
