Sep 18, 2024
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) - Months after the City of Wichita fell victim to a cyberattack, we finally have a clearer picture of whose information was stolen. However, if you're one of the people at risk, City leaders will not notify you directly. If you were being investigated for some sort of criminal activity or were a victim of a crime within Wichita at or before the cyberattack in early May, your information could be compromised. If you got a ticket or were pulled over, your personal information is also at risk. City leaders know tens of thousands of cases were compromised. What they don't know is how far back those cases go and exactly how many people were involved in them. 4 suspects in Kansas women’s deaths to share preliminary hearing, but 1 won’t "There were about 77,000 cases that were in the system at the time of the cyberattack. We don't know if all of those cases were accessed, but that would've been the total number of cases," said Wichita City Manager Bob Layton. Incident reports on those cases, which contained personal information about people involved in incidents ranging from traffic violations to criminal investigations, were compromised in May when a cyber attack on the City of Wichita systems occurred. "A person that has been subject to a criminal incident or criminal investigation should assume their data was in the database," said Wichita Assistant City Manager Donte Martin. Potentially leaked information includes social security numbers. "Name of an individual, their date of birth, driver's license information if that was pertinent to the citation, possibly an email address," said Wichita City Manager Bob Layton. Also credit card information, but only in investigations related to some sort of credit card theft. The City will not notify anyone directly whose data was compromised. "When the numbers arise to this threshold as they did in this situation, the state law is very specific. It provides the opportunity for blanket notification, which the City did through its website because the numbers were unable to be identified," said Wichita City Attorney and Director of Law Jennifer Magaña. The City says those 77,000 cases are the only places they've identified where personal information was leaked. That means if you paid a water bill or had other personal interactions with the City, this should not affect you. City of Wichita IT Director Mike Mayta recommends monitoring credit ratings, monitoring accounts, and limiting the amount that can be withdrawn from your bank. "We have libraries, neighborhood city halls. They can help people understand digital identities, how to protect them," Mayta said. The City says they are taking steps to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. "We're utilizing people resources. We haven't hired any additional people resources," Mayta said. Your Social Security number may have been leaked. Should you freeze your credit? City staff say they already have existing staff dedicated to cybersecurity, but could not specify how many due to cybersecurity reasons. They say the cybersecurity breach was caused by a flaw in their hardware that affected multiple systems using the same manufacturer for their hardware, so they strengthened their systems before going back online. In terms of how much this cost the City they're not sure. Officials say they have insurance that covers the cost of consultants hired after the attack and other recovery efforts, but the City is having to pay the entire $250,000 deductible to the insurance company.
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