Almost 2 million Texans affected by Texas Department of Insurance data breach

((*2*)Texas Tribune) — An enormous safety breach on the Texas Department of Insurance leaked the non-public information of nearly 2 million Texans for practically three years, in keeping with a state audit launched final week.

The division mentioned the non-public information of 1.8 million employees who’ve filed compensation claims — together with Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of start, cellphone numbers and information about employees’ accidents — was accessible on-line to members of the general public from March 2019 to January 2022.

Though private information was compromised – the company now says there’s no purpose to consider the data was used.

According to TDI, it started investigating again in January this yr. They labored with a forensic firm, inspecting the information that was uncovered. They didn’t discover any proof that anybody exterior of TDI used the data.

The division didn’t formally acknowledge the safety subject till the state auditor’s workplace performed a evaluation. After the audit, the Department of Insurance despatched out a discover acknowledging it grew to become conscious of the difficulty in January.

The breach occurred as a result of of a problem within the programming code within the division’s internet software that manages employees’ compensation data. The subject within the code allowed members of the general public to entry a protected half of that on-line software, the division mentioned.

The state’s insurance coverage division mentioned it will present 12 months of free credit score monitoring and id safety providers to people whose data was breached.

TDI mentioned it’s working to enhance its safety insurance policies, although they didn’t specify what precisely employees will probably be doing to forestall this transferring ahead.

This article initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media group that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public coverage, politics, authorities and statewide points.