Missouri – The Missouri Department of Mental Health revealed a privacy breach involving the unintended leaking of personal information for 537 individuals. The department has confirmed that an email containing sensitive information was unintentionally forwarded to a group of people connected to several state departments and community organizations on November 1.
Names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, references to housing providers, and department client numbers—among other things—are among the exposed data. The department has said that despite the hack there is no evidence the data was accessed or used maliciously. They were alerted to the mistake on November 5, 2024, and have since taken swift action to prevent any further unauthorized disclosure.
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The Missouri Department of Mental Health is now in the process of notifying individuals impacted via letter to help to handle the matter. These notifications seek to let recipients know about the hack and direct them on personal information protection. Concerned individuals have been advised to express concerns or request further information by email at [email protected] or by calling their toll-free line, 1-833-493-4456.
Apart from the immediate alerts, the agency is recommending impacted people to act early to protect their credit. This covers adding credit freezes and free fraud warnings. Because a fraud alert forces businesses to confirm the person’s identification before granting credit, it makes it more difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts in an individual’s name. Only one of the three main credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion—which will then tell the other two has to be contacted by those impacted.
Moreover, homeowners can ask for a credit freeze, which completely limits access to their credit records, therefore making it much more difficult for identity thieves to start new accounts. Unlike fraud warnings, a credit freeze has to be set up with every credit agency separately. This service is provided for free; each bureau will assign a personal identification number (PIN) required to remove the freeze.
The department also advises to consider a freeze on files from lesser-known credit agencies like Innovis and ChexSystems, which might offer still another degree of security.
The incident is yet another reminder of the weaknesses in data management and the need of strong privacy protection. Reviewing its policies and practices, the Missouri Department of Mental Health is making sure that such a breach never occurs again and thus protects everyone’s privacy under its supervision.
