Florida Data Breach - ALERT!!

[Baja Daze]

If you have a Florida CWFL your personal data may have been breached!

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced this week that it has been the victim of a data breach. The government agency oversees concealed-weapons licensing and hackers successfully stole private information of more than 16,000 gun owners.

The agency said, "Names of 16,190 concealed weapon licensees, which is less than [1] percent of [the] total number of concealed licensees, may have been obtained; however, no other individually identifying information of the concealed weapon licensees was compromised. Only concealed weapon licensees who renewed online may have had their names accessed. The department's Office of Inspector General determined that there is no risk of identity theft to these licensees."

To make matters worse, an additional 469 customers had their Social Security numbers stolen.

It will be interesting to see how this eventually plays out, typically these breaches evolve into something much more substantial that what was initially reported.

[E__WOK]

Well that sucks.

[Paladin]

Originally Posted by Baja Daze

[I]The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced this week that it has been the victim of a data breach. The government agency oversees concealed-weapons licensing and hackers successfully stole private information of more than 16,000 gun owners.

The agency said, "Names of 16,190 concealed weapon licensees, which is less than [1] percent of [the] total number of concealed licensees, may have been obtained; however, no other individually identifying information of the concealed weapon licensees was compromised. Only concealed weapon licensees who renewed online may have had their names accessed. The department's Office of Inspector General determined that there is no risk of identity theft to these licensees."

Fortunately, I just received my first non-resident FL CCW, so: (1) IIRC, non-resident FL CCW apps are not online (I mailed mine in since they only accept Livescans from within FL); and (2) mine was an initial, not renewal, CCW.

Originally Posted by Baja Daze

To make matters worse, an additional 469 customers had their Social Security numbers stolen.

You left out the important part of the rest of the paragraph:

Before 2009, the department gave customers renewing licenses online the option of using their Social Security number or Federal Employer Identification Number when filling out the form. The department stopped allowing Social Security numbers to be used in 2009, or there most likely would be more customers' numbers stolen in this breach.

So, as it stands now, anyone who recently applied for a FL non-resident CCW in hopes of carrying under Nat'l Reciprocity are fine.