Oakland is a large city to the east of San Francisco in California. The city has a population of approximately 430,000 individuals and has been in existence for over 170 years.
The City of Oakland breach occurred when an attacker infected the company's servers with malware that encrypted some of the documents and local files. The encrypted files contained some personal information that could hurt Oakland citizens if the attackers tried and use the information for fraudulent purposes.
February 8, 2023 is when this breach began as far as the city can tell. That's the date when the city realized its servers were infected and when it had to take action to stop the attackers.
This Oakland breach impacted some of the citizens of the city that entrusted the government with their information. If you submitted information to the government when applying to any local assistance programs or when applying to other programs, you may have been exposed.
The City of Oakland breach has the potential to impact tens of thousands of different files. We don't know the full scope of the attack, but the city is informing anyone that could have been involved in the attack about the issue. If you get a notice, you should take steps to protect yourself. Consider putting a freeze on your credit and watch over your financial accounts for any strange activity.