Texas' McKinney City struck by a major cyber attack

The city of McKinney in Texas said it suffered a data security incident that compromised the personal sensitive information of its residents.

 

In a data breach notice posted on its website, the City, located in Collin County in Texas, said that on November 14, it identified unauthorised access to its internal network and launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

The investigation revealed that threat actors infiltrated the City’s internal network on October 31. Immediately after identifying the infiltration, the City “severed any unauthorised activity.” It also took steps to secure the affected systems and notified relevant law enforcement authorities about the incident.

 

“On November 16, 2024, our investigation determined that certain files may have been exposed without authorisation. Thereafter, the City conducted a thorough review of the contents of the files to determine if they contained any sensitive information. 

 

“On December 30, 2024, after completing the review, the City learned that certain personal or sensitive information contained in its environment may have been exposed as a result of the incident,” the City said.

The compromised data included names and other personal identifiers along with Social Security Numbers. In a filing with the Maine state regulator, the City said it identified at least 17,751 individuals who were impacted by the incident.

 

While the city found no evidence of the compromise data being misused, it has 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.

 

It has also offered one year of complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through Cyberscout to all affected individuals.

 

At the time of publishing, no known hacker group has claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on the city of McKinney. City officials also did not share details on who is behind the attack or if they have received a ransom demand.