FloridaCentral says email account breach impacted over 35,000 customers

FloridaCentral Credit Union, a not-for-profit financial institution based in Tampa, Florida, said that the data security incident it suffered earlier this year compromised the sensitive personal information of more than 35,000 individuals.

 

In a data breach notice filed with the Office of Maine Attorney General, FloridaCentral said that earlier this year, it identified suspicious activities in one of its employee’s email accounts. The company immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

“Our investigation determined that an unauthorised third party accessed the one email account between April 2, 2024, and April 4, 2024,” the credit union said. “We reviewed the contents of the involved email account to determine if it contained any personal information that may have been viewed or acquired by the third party. On July 31, 2024, we discovered that the email account contained some of your personal information.”

 

While the financial organisation said that it couldn’t confirm whether the unauthorised third party actually viewed or accessed the personal information in the compromised email, it said that the email account stored details like customers’ names and other personal identifiers.

 

FloridaCentral’s filing with the Maine state regulator also states that at least 36,479 individuals were impacted by the data security incident.

 

The credit union added that it notified relevant law enforcement authorities about the incident and worked with them to resolve the issue. Also, it took steps to strengthen its security protocols to avoid facing similar incidents in the future.

 

The financial institution added that it found no evidence of the compromised information being misused, but advised all affected individuals to regularly monitor their credit reports, account and benefit statements and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities, including the police and state attorney general.

 

FloridaCentral has also offered one year of complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through Experian Credit3B Identity Works to all affected individuals.