City Aware of Netsential.com Data Breach
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
July 24, 2020
CONTACT
Public Information Officer
police@redmond.gov
425-556-2581
Redmond, WA – The City of Redmond is aware of a security/data incident related to “attackwa.org” which was operated by Netsential.com. This database was a part of a nation-wide data hack into Netsential systems known as the “Blue Leaks” hack, which affected over 200 law enforcement agencies across the country. Netsential reported this hack on June 22, 2020. On June 26, 2020, the City of Redmond discovered that its attackwa.org database was among the databases affected by this hack. The Blue Leaks data breach is currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The attackwa.org database has been live since January 2018 and is used by both public and private law enforcement partners to create and distribute information amongst various police departments pertaining to automobile-related crimes. There are a variety of documents shared among partner organizations, including other police departments, in this database. Breached information from this database may have included the following personal information: full name or partial name and dates of birth. The breach may also have included addresses; photographs (including booking photos); and, if applicable, prior criminal history. For all but a handful of individuals, the database did not contain social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and state ID numbers. Further, the database did not store any financial information such as credit card numbers or financial account numbers.
Individuals whose personal information was stored in attackwa.org are not necessarily a suspect in a crime, as this database also included some victim and witness information. Individuals who are concerned about identify theft, are encouraged to contact one of three national credit reporting agencies for the purpose of requesting a copy of their credit report or for general inquiries:
The City of Redmond takes its role of safeguarding personal information very seriously and apologizes for this incident. We continue to discuss additional measures that we as a municipality can adopt to ensure the highest level of security for personal information. For questions or more information, please contact the City of Redmond Police Department at police@redmond.gov or (425) 556-2581. This press release is available on www.redmond.gov/PressReleases.
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