CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - As many as 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit and debit card numbers belonging to South Carolina taxpayers could have been exposed in recent cyber attacks on the state Department of Revenue's computers, officials said on Friday.
The vast majority of the credit card numbers were encrypted, but about 16,000 were not, meaning the data was fully exposed, state police said.
None of the Social Security numbers were encrypted, said State Law Enforcement Divisionspokesman Thom Berry.
Berry said the hacker used a foreign Internet Protocol (IP) address to gain access to the data.
Officials said no public funds were accessed or put at risk. An investigation into the security breach is ongoing.
Investigators this month discovered two attempts to probe the Department of Revenue's system in early September, and later learned of an attempt made in late August, state officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/taxpayer-data-exposed-cyber-attack-south-carolina-agency-210907821.html
The vast majority of the credit card numbers were encrypted, but about 16,000 were not, meaning the data was fully exposed, state police said.
None of the Social Security numbers were encrypted, said State Law Enforcement Divisionspokesman Thom Berry.
Berry said the hacker used a foreign Internet Protocol (IP) address to gain access to the data.
Officials said no public funds were accessed or put at risk. An investigation into the security breach is ongoing.
Investigators this month discovered two attempts to probe the Department of Revenue's system in early September, and later learned of an attempt made in late August, state officials said.
http://news.yahoo.com/taxpayer-data-exposed-cyber-attack-south-carolina-agency-210907821.html