Personal information stolen in Catawba County

NEWTON, NC — Thousands of letters have gone out to employees and families after someone hacked into Catawba County’s human resources and payroll system.

The malware was first detected last fall in Newton, leading to an extensive investigation into whose personal information was stolen.

County leaders say they’ve sent out 9,400 letters to current and former employees explaining what happened.

One family received five separate letters about the data breach because all the family members are receiving insurance through the county.  In it, the letter states "the following types of information may have been accessible: name, address, Social Security number, financial account information, and user names and passwords."

The county has confirmed at least 187 employees had their information compromised.  Assistant County Manager Mary Furtado was one of them.

"It’s like someone getting into your home.  You know with certainty what they got.  And, they could have walked around and seen everything else and that’s the basis we used to determine it was prudent and the best interest of our employees," she explained.

The county has sent out two letters during the last week.  One to employees who had their information stolen, the other to more than 9,000 people who had information stored in the payroll and human resources system.  That includes active employees, retired employees, their spouses, and dependents who most likely didn’t have their personal information stolen.

The county says the greatest impact was in the county manager's office - the first data accessible in the malware attack - and ironically the same department tasked with coming up with the plan to prevent it from happening again.  Catawba County is now offering identity protection free of charge for anyone possibly impacted.

"I was one of the folks that was affected by this.  When I heard that news, of course you’re worried.  But things like this happen every day," said Communications Director Amy McCauley.

The county says it is taking other measures to keep personal information safe.  They did have insurance for something like this and have already paid the entire deductible of $50,000.

Cox Media Group