KSTP reports:
The Minnesota Department of Human Services were victims of a phishing email scam, where someone had the ability to access the information of approximately 21,000 individuals who interacted with the department.
DHS confirmed the potential breach Thursday in a statement.
DHS sent out a letter dated Tuesday to those individuals whose information may have been accessed. In the letter, it says incidents occurred in June and July.
Read more on KSTP.
On October 9, Minnesota DHS posted the following notice on their web site:
Notice about recent cyberattacks impacting some DHS clients
State agencies, including the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), continue to be the target of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. Recently, hackers accessed the state email accounts of two DHS employees through email phishing campaigns, and had the ability to view and download the information contained in these accounts. We immediately took steps to secure these accounts, and currently have no evidence that any information was actually viewed, downloaded or misused.We take data privacy very seriously at DHS, and continue to work with our employees and partners to prevent cyberattacks. You can find out more about the recent cyberattacks and our response to them by reading the notification letter sent to the individuals (PDF) impacted by these cyberattacks or by calling 651-431-2255.
The notification letter to individuals appears below: