Governor John Bel Edwards’s office announced Thursday that a major cyber attack may have compromised private information of anyone possessing a Louisiana driver’s license, identification card, or vehicle registration.
Louisiana’s Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) is one of a still undetermined number of government entities, major businesses and organizations to be affected by the unprecedented MOVEit data breach.
MOVEit is an industry-leading third party data transfer service used to send large files. It is widely used across the country and around the world, and reports are rapidly emerging of newly discovered exposures of sensitive data in this major international cyber attack.
CBS News reported Thursday evening that federal officials are racing to limit the impact of what one cyber expert calls potentially the largest theft and extortion event in recent history. Among the other entities breached were the U.S. Department of Energy, Britisth Airways and the University System of Georgia. A government official told CBS no evidence so far indicates any military or sensitive intelligence has been compromised.
The Governor’s office said there is no indication so far that cyber attackers have sold, used, shared or released the OMV data obtained from the MOVEit attack. The cyber attackers have not contacted state government. All Louisianans are encouraged to take immediate steps to safeguard their identity.
OMW said the breach “likely had the following data exposed to the cyber attackers”: name, address, social security number, birthdate, driver’s license number, vehicle registration, height and eye color.
The press release advises to take the following steps:
1. Prevent unauthorized new account openings or loans and monitor credit, and if necessary call the following bureaus to freeze your credit:
Experian, 1-888-397-3742, http://www.experian.com/freeze
Equifax, 1-800-685-1111, http://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
TransUnion, (888) 909-8872, http://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
2. Change all passwords for online accounts and use multi-factor authentication when possible.
3. Protect your tax refund and tax returns with the IRS by requesting an Identity Protection Pin.
4. Check your social security benefits and consider registering for an ssa.gov account to prevent others from stealing benefits.
5. Report any abnormal activity involving your data or any suspected identity theft at 1-877-FTC-HELP or at this link.
The complete press release may be read at https://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/4158
