Breach exposed info of 2K on Detroit health department website, city says

The city of Detroit is offering free credit monitoring to about 2,000 residents after their personal information was briefly exposed through the health department website last month, officials said Friday.

The breach happened on March 28, and the city’s Department of Innovation & Technology immediately responded to contain it within a few hours, representatives said in a statement.

No Social Security numbers were included in the breach, and the technology department has strengthened security protocols, according to the release. Meanwhile, the city has sent letters to residents alerting them about the incident and giving instructions to start free credit monitoring through Experian.

“We take very seriously the security of health information and cyber security," said Adria Jackson, the city health information officer. "The city has taken the necessary steps to address the concern and care for the privacy and safeguarding of residents' information with a year of free credit monitoring services.”

The leak was at least the third Metro Detroit health officials have reported this month.

Oakland County officials last week said internal COVID-19 data used by the Oakland County health department was briefly exposed on the WeChat application for nearly 12 hours between April 14-15, when administrators secured it.

Last week, Beaumont Health announced a data breach in 2019 that officials said could have exposed the personal information of up to 112,000 people.