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BROOME COUNTY DATA BREACH: TENS OF THOUSANDS MAY BE AFFECTED


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Breaking news out of Broome County this Memorial Day weekend.

BCVoice News has learned BROOME COUNTY GOVERNMENT was hacked months ago.  We believe in JANUARY.  Sensitive data including names and addresses with social security numbers, bank accounts, protected medical records, AND MORE, have been stolen from the Broome County server.  Those affected include current and former county employees, their families, and local towns, villages, school districts and police departments who deal with Broome County IT and/or Personnel Dept.

Even worse than the data breach... Broome County has known of this SINCE JANUARY and the tens of thousands affected have STILL NOT BEEN NOTIFIED.  If you live in Broome County, check your credit score IMMEDIATELY.  BCVoice has learned  Broome County Government tried to COVER THIS UP, until they were ORDERED to contact all those affected. Now the county may face MILLIONS of DOLLARS IN FINES.

We will bring you more information as it becomes available.

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Jason Garnar ran for county executive saying Preston was out of touch on several issues, technology being one of them.  If the IT data breach happened, and it is this widespread, the IT director needs to go, and Broome IT needs a complete overhaul.  If the county knew since January, and no one has been notified until now, Garnar should not be re-elected.  For four months, personal data and HIPPA records have been in the hands of hackers, and the victims haven't been able to protect themselves?  Totally unacceptable. 

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1 hour ago, Former Democrat said:

Jason Garnar ran for county executive saying Preston was out of touch on several issues, technology being one of them.  If the IT data breach happened, and it is this widespread, the IT director needs to go, and Broome IT needs a complete overhaul.  If the county knew since January, and no one has been notified until now, Garnar should not be re-elected.  For four months, personal data and HIPPA records have been in the hands of hackers, and the victims haven't been able to protect themselves?  Totally unacceptable. 

If we are talking HIPAA, the fines likely will be in the millions. Especially if the county has known since January.

 

HIPAA-Penalties.png

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BREAKING news this afternoon.

BCVoice has learned, as part of this data breach, between $40,000 - $60,000 was stolen from county employees' paychecks.  The money has not been found.  This happened in January. 

It is believed the Broome County breach may be connected to:  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ransomware-how-cybercriminals-hold-data-hostage-and-why-the-best-solution-is-often-paying-a-ransom-60-minutes-2019-05-05/

BCVoice is reaching out to the city of Binghamton, to determine if the city was affected, and if Binghamton shares any IT services with Broome County.

 

 

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43 minutes ago, PeteMoss said:

When Jason Garnar took office he cleaned out all of the heads of the departments and put his own people into those positions.

I question the quality of the people he put in these seats.

Many of the Garnar appointees had no experience at all. I question if they had even the minimum qualifications for entry level employment?

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From what we have learned here at BCVOICE  is the monies taken (40,000 to 60,000 and it could be more) by the HACKERS was deposited in a BOGUS UNTRACEABLE ACCOUNT and more than likely these HACKERS will NEVER BE CAUGHT. 60 minutes ran a story of a similar case just weeks ago with another County in New York State being taken for even more money. That County at least notified everyone who was effected by the breach and the loses. 

Social Security Numbers of County Employees may also been taken in Broome County by Hackers. We like to know who's running the show over there at the County?

Broome County had to go into another Account to use those funds to cover the loses of the monies taken to pay those County Employees affected by the security breach! 

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56 minutes ago, PeteMoss said:

The county should be buying a year subscription to Lifelock for all those affected.

I was thinking the same thing. 

It still amazes me that people will choose to try to cover up incidents such as this, rather than address the issue at hand accordingly. The cover up tends to just make everything about the situation worse.

You’d think people would be able to act in a more mature, responsible and professional manner during times like this. 

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From what I am reading here I don't think this was an outside job.  If it was a hacker, he would steal everything he could, he wouldn't steal a little bit from some paychecks.

This sounds more like an inside job.  Someone peeled off a little here and a little there hoping to not be noticed.  This is the MO of most government employees who get caught by the NYS comptroller.  Five bucks here, ten bucks there.  Eventually it adds up and they get caught.

This is just my opinion, I could be totally wrong.  But I could be totally right.

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Someone who knows what's going on here, please correct me.  Following this thread, my understanding is: There was a major hack of Broome County, which is comprised of two major issues?  First, there may be 10,000 local residents who's personal data was stolen.  Second, $40-60k in employee salaries was stolen.And Broome County notified some of those affected, but not everyone?

Regardless... this is a disaster.  

I'm a Democrat, but locally I usually vote Republican.  I did vote for Garnar. But I need to know, what steps did the county taken prior to the hack, to prevent such attacks.  And, what has the county done since the attack to make it right?   These attacks happen all over the country.  But if Garnar did know since January, and some one those impacted still don't know, Garnar needs to go 100%.

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