Washington State system hacked, data of thousands at risk... (4/29)

The website for the Washington State court system has been hacked and up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and a million driver's license numbers may have been accessed, officials said on Thursday.
The disclosure, which follows a number of major hacking incidents in recent years that have targeted a range of companies from Twitter to Apple Inc, raises concerns that the information accessed could be used to commit financial fraud.

The breach was discovered in February, and officials at first believed no confidential information had been leaked even though a large amount of data was downloaded from the website, the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts said.

But officials later determined that 94 Social Security numbers were definitely obtained by the person or group that committed the security breach, while 160,000 Social Security numbers and a million driver's license numbers may have been accessed.

"The access occurred through a ‘back door' part of a commercial software product we were using, and it is patched now," Mike Keeling, information technology operations and maintenance manager for the court system, told reporters on a conference call.
"We found specific (hacker) footprints in the area where those 94 Social Security numbers were located, so that's why we're reasonably sure that the data was accessed," he said.

Callie T. Dietz, the state's court administrator, said this was the first time the agency's system had been hacked. Officials were notifying by mail the 94 people whose Social Security numbers were accessed from the site.

"We regret that this breach has occurred and we have taken immediate action to enhance the security of these sites," Dietz said separately in a statement.

Website: http://news.yahoo.com/breach-washington-state-courts-may-exposed-160-000-190210552.html