Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Andy Skoogman, 612-919-5918
Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Monitoring and Responding to Data Breach
October 23, 2020 (Minneapolis) - The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) is working with the FBI to monitor and respond to a sophisticated web service breach after information from more than 200 police departments, fusion centers and other U.S. law enforcement agencies was compromised this summer.
The HCSO was notified in June by Netsential that a data breach of a Netsential server included information from the HCSO. Netsential is a Houston, Texas-based company which provides web hosting services to hundreds of law enforcement and government agencies across the country, including the HCSO.
The most common documents shared by the HCSO through the webservice are crime information and situational awareness bulletins from federal, state and local law enforcement officials. These bulletins often contain information such as the full name and date of birth of individuals under investigation, wanted by law enforcement or who have active criminal warrants. In many cases, the sharing of information between law enforcement agencies is critical to solving crimes and tracking down suspected criminals.
Since being notified, the HCSO has diligently investigated whether any private data was accessed as a result of the Netsential breach. The investigation has found at least 1,400 individuals have been impacted.
The Houston FBI Field Office continues to investigate the scope of the breach.
Over the past several months, Netsential has modernized its primary storage platform and enhanced database security by creating unique, complex passwords for each database. It has also begun to increase data encryption awareness and plans additional security upgrades.
These changes signal that Netsential has taken the breach seriously, is cooperating with the FBI and continues to improve security measures, said Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Andy Skoogman.
Skoogman said that the county has prepared a breach report pursuant to state law. Members of the public may request a copy of the report by mail or e-mail. The report will also be posted on the sheriff’s website or obtained by contacting Lt. Jennifer Johnson from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office at 612-543-3515.
– HCSO–
Look for more news on
the Hennepin County Sheriff's website at http://www.hennepinsheriff.org.
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