The North Carolina Department of Public Safety is apologizing after a breach exposed crime victims’ information online. Kelly Hinchcliffe and Laura Leslie of WRAL report that the news station discovered the breach:
The breach happened sometime in late 2012 after the department created a new website and moved it to a state server, according Department of Public Safety Communications Director Pamela Walker. Although the information was publicly available for more than a year, state workers investigating the breach believe it is “highly unlikely that anybody accessed this site,” Walker said.
WRAL was able to find information about victims on the site as far back as 1992, including victims’ names, dates of birth, dates of the crimes, how much money they requested and whether they were denied or received financial help. Some of the cases included names and birth dates of children who had been sexually abused.
Read more on WRAL.