Out of an abundance of caution, the Town of Christiansburg is offering free credit monitoring to certain individuals after a data security incident earlier this year.
On Oct. 26, 2018, computer forensics revealed that three Town of Christiansburg employee email accounts were compromised following a phishing email sent to Town staff in May, June and September. The email accounts impacted contained some personally identifiable information of members of the public, but there is no evidence to date that any of that information has been misused. Upon learning that the accounts were compromised, the log in information for all employee accounts was changed and has been constantly monitored by computer forensics. The Town also contacted law enforcement to report the incident.
“To reiterate, based on the Town’s investigation, we are not aware of any activity that has impacted individuals as a result of this incident,” Town Manager Randy Wingfield said. “However, if scammers have plans to misuse that information, we wanted to act fast and be transparent throughout this process.”
Letters have been sent to affected individuals to inform them that their information was contained in one of the accounts. Those 909 individuals will be offered complimentary credit monitoring at the Town’s expense. The credit monitoring helps detect possible misuse of personal information and provides those individuals with identity protection support focused on immediate identification and resolution of identity theft.
The Town of Christiansburg has taken every step necessary to address the incident and is committed to fully protecting all of the information the public has entrusted to us. The Town worked with data privacy experts and other professionals and has already taken steps to fix the issue and strengthen the Town’s systems. The following protective measures have been taken:
- Requiring additional security and data protection training for all employees
- Implementing additional technological security measures
- Updating password protocols
- Limiting user’s access to information possessed and maintained by the Town
- Conducting regular phishing testing of employees
The Town’s financial and record management systems were not attacked or affected. The Town is working with experts to review its internal security and privacy policies to ensure that this type of personal information is not provided or contained in email in the future.
If you do not receive a letter about this incident, you were not affected; however, if you would like to confirm that you were not affected, you can call (877) 769-5558 and provide your name and date of birth.
The Town has set up a website page with more information at www.christiansburg.org/creditmonitoring. We sincerely apologize for this incident and regret any inconvenience it may cause. Should you have questions or concerns regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us at (877) 769-5558.
— Submitted
