More than one year after it first discovered a breach, a Florida law firm is notifying people about it. While the firm’s notification suggests that it is notifying out of an abundance of caution because it cannot actually determine whose data may have been accessed — or acquired, an alternative way to look at this incident is to say that if you can’t really tell whose information may have been stolen, then yes, you should be abundantly cautious — offer people complimentary services. But that didn’t happen here.
Sachs Sax Caplan, P.L issued a press release on March 12. It begins:
Although they are unaware of any actual or attempted misuse, Sachs Sax Caplan , P.L. (“SSC”) is providing notice of a data privacy event impacting the security of certain information stored on its systems.
What happened? On February 26, 2020 , SSC identified suspicious activity related to certain SSC systems. Upon discovery, SSC immediately commenced an investigation, which included working with third-party forensic specialists, to determine the full nature and scope of the incident and to secure its network. SSC determined that an unauthorized actor gained access to certain systems and email accounts within its environment in January and February 2020. As a result, the unauthorized actor may have gained access to or exfiltrated information located within these systems and email accounts. While SSC was able to determine that these systems and email accounts were accessed, SSC was unable to determine which sensitive information located within these systems and email accounts may have been actually accessed or acquired by the unauthorized actor. Therefore, in an abundance of caution, SSC conducted an extensive programmatic and manual review of the affected systems and email accounts to identify the information stored therein that may have been affected by this event.
What information may have been affected by this incident? The affected systems and email accounts contained information related to certain SSC clients and other individuals involved in legal matters handled by SSC. The type of information affected varies per impacted individual, and includes one or more of the following types of information: name, date of birth, Social Security number, driver’s license number or state identification card number, credit or debit card number, electronic signature, financial account number, and medical or health-related information.
Although SSC cannot confirm that any individual’s information was actually viewed by an unauthorized individual, they are providing this notice because they determined the types of information listed above were present in the affected systems or email accounts. SSC has no evidence of actual or attempted misuse of any individual’s information as a result of this incident.
You can read more of the press release on PR Newswire.