Suffolk County, New York, is primarily set in eastern Long Island. It's also home to over 1.4 million residents.
The breach was a ransomware attack carried out by a group called 'BlackCat' or 'ALPHV.' ALPHV demanded a ransom that wasn't yet disclosed to the citizens. As soon as the county discovered the breach, the Suffolk County government shut down all systems connected to the leak. When the government refused to communicate with the hackers, ALPHV began to release small amounts of information to the public.
The exact breach method is either unknown or not released to the public at the time of writing. What we do know is that the hack occurred via a ransomware attack. It was likely a phishing campaign or an overly simple password.
This breach occurred on September 8th, 2022.
The breach impacts anyone that lives within Suffolk County. Emergency responders, realtors, local PD, and government employees were hit the hardest by the system shutdown. Everyone whose systems were lost has had to resort to the 'old-school' method of record-keeping; pen and paper.
We aren't exactly sure how many files were affected at this time, and that information has not been released to the public. If you think you have been affected by the breach, you can take steps to protect yourself.