Public Notice: State Auditor’s Office efforts regarding Accellion data security

As reported, a security breach at Accellion, a third-party file transfer service impacted the Washington State Auditor’s Office (SAO) in late December 2020. SAO first learned about the breach in mid-January 2021. Since that time, SAO has taken steps to identify the data files that were on the Accellion platform at the time the breach occurred. This breach affected many public and private-sector organizations worldwide, and is under investigation by law enforcement. SAO’s review of files to identify and notify potentially affected individuals whose personal information may have been affected is ongoing. SAO has sent e-mail notification to individuals identified to date who received unemployment benefits from the State of Washington during 2017-2020. The types of personal information identified in this data file may have included name, Social Security number, date of birth, street address, e-mail address, bank account number, and bank routing number. Individuals who do not receive an e-mail notification, but are concerned that their personal information was involved, should visit sao.wa.gov/breach2021 or call the SAO dedicated Call Center at 1-855-789-0673. SAO publishes updated information about its investigation and the notification process on its website, sao.wa.gov/breach2021. The website also contains important resources to for protecting personal information. SAO is offering one year of free credit monitoring and unlimited free identity restoration services to people whose Social Security numbers are believed to be in the affected data files. (973510) March 25, April 1 and 8, 2021