Weekly Cybersecurity Recap August 18

Financial institutions and state government agencies were the main targets of hackers this week. Major organizations like Bank of America and Hospitality Staffing Solutions were hit hard resulting in huge data losses for citizens, and the states of Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Tennessee each experienced major data losses in their regulatory bodies or programs. Learn more about each of these serious data breaches and find out if your information is safe. 

Vermont Dept of Financial Regulation

The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation is a regulating body throughout the state that oversees financial institutions in an effort to protect the citizens. The organization is divided into Banking, Securities, Insurance, and Captive Insurance divisions and each works with a huge number of different companies. The business processes data from these organizations and handles delicate information as a result. That's why it's a major issue that the company was breached in the MoveIt data breaches. Social Security numbers, phone numbers, driver's license numbers, home address information, and more was lost for more than 42,000 Vermont residents. Watch for letters from the state department informing you that you were involved so you can take steps to protect your data. 

Hospitality Staffing Solutions

Hospitality Staffing Solutions is a temp agency that helps supply employees to a variety of companies in the hospitality industry. Companies such as hotels, hospitals, colleges, casinos, and more rely on the company for their employees, and over 10k people work for the company. The organization was the victim of a serious data breach on March 2, 2023, and again on March 30, 2023. In the breach, users lost Driver's license numbers, full names, home addresses, Social Security numbers, and more. Watch for an individual letter informing you about this breach if you were connected with Hospitality Staffing Solutions in some way. 

PA Child Works

The PA Child Works program is a state-run system that offers assistance to low-income parents to help them pay for child care. The system requires applicants to submit personal and financial data, such as employment history, household size and income, Social Security numbers, and much more. This information was accessible to attackers on June 26 and 27 of 2023. If you receive a notice from the program, you should take immediate action to guard your information lost from any attacks. 

Ernst and Young Loses Bank of America, Cardholder Data

Ernst and Young is a consulting company that provides services to major corporations. One of those companies is Bank of America, and more than 11,000 cardholders from BoA lost personal and financial data in a breach that hit Ernst and Young specifically. The breach was caused by the MOVEit file transfer service security leak, and it led to huge data losses, including Social Security numbers, Government IDs, full names, and more. 

Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System

The Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System is a program that manages retirement and other benefits programs for full-time employees in the state of Tennessee. This program manages a substantial amount of personal data, and it was recently the victim of a breach because it uses PBI (Pension Benefits Information) to process some of its data. PBI was hit by the MOVEit file transfer data breach attack in late May, and early June of 2023, and Tennessee residents lost their data to this attack as a result of that breach. If you receive a notice, you should act to guard your information from misuse.