Arizona courts investigate data breach
PHOENIX (NBC, KYMA) - The Arizona Judicial Branch and the FBI are both investigating a breach which exposed the personal information of more than one million people.
The breach also let someone download foster care reports.
"We've discovered at least 99 percent of what was downloaded," said Chief Justice Ann Timmer.
What was downloaded from the Arizona state courts was a lot as Chief Justice Timmer said an employee clicked a link and let those hackers in.
"Our assumption is that they will be able to read the names and match it to a Social Security number," Timmer shared.
The hackers hit three areas: The FARE System, which people use to pay fines and restitution, the Foster Care Review Board and orders of protection.
"For me, this is the worst thing. Even if it's improbable that something will happen, the idea that you're a victim that's come to the court for assistance, and now you have to worry about, will the person I'm trying to protect myself against have access to information of where I'm located? That's very distressing to everyone," Timmer expressed.
Timmer said the foster care reports do have the names of kids and recommendations by the board. Those were regular documents, but Timmer said the FARE System and the protection order information were not. They need to be decoded to be read.
"Is it possible to read this, put it on the dark web? Yes, it is possible. I mean, is it probable? I don't know. There's a lot of steps. We've had no indication yet that anything has happened with any of this data," Timmer explained.
Cybersecurity experts said this probably isn't about foster kids or identifying victims of crimes. It's about money.
"If it was a case of ransomware, the network would have actually been locked out and then you get a message asking for monies in order to restore access. That hasn't happened in this case. In this case, the information was taken," said Ian Marlow with FITECH Consultants. "Once that information is taken, the question is what people do with it."
Marlow said it's more likely that what they do with the data is steal identities, and these hacking attempts happen all the time.
"It's not just government agencies. Government agencies, companies, this is extraordinarily common," Marlow spoke.
Marlow and the Arizona Judicial Department both said anyone affected should freeze their credit and monitor it.
As of now, the state is now offering to pay for any monitoring.
Timmer said the courts have texted and emailed people who have been affected by the breach.
