About 500 impacted in Ramsey County Social Services data breach

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A cyber attack on the Ramsey County Social Services may have comprised hundreds of clients’ private health information.

In August, hackers gained access to the accounts of 28 employees in an attempt to divert their paychecks.

“At Ramsey County this is the first time that we experienced something like this,” said John Siqveland, Ramsey County public communications director.

An assessment by a data security firm revealed in October, that during the August security breach, the personal information of roughly 500 Ramsey County Social Services clients may have been exposed.

“Most of the clients that were compromised used our chemical or mental health services,” said Siqveland.

The hackers may have accessed their social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and a limited amount of medical information.

The county issuing notification letters Tuesday nearly two months after the disclosure.

“We were set to work in getting this forensics team on board,” said Siqveland. “We took that report and then we set to work to identify the individuals and the addresses so that we were assured that we were contacting the people who may have been compromised.”

The county is now implementing new security measures to prevent this from happening again.

“We issued this letter yesterday to these clients and one of the things our county manager did was extend a sincere apology to anyone who was inconvenienced by this,” said Siqveland. “And I would restate that this here, we are truly sorry if anyone has been inconvenienced by this.”