Contra Costa County Data Breach: Employment And Human Services Dept.

PINOLE AND HERCULES, CA — Extremely sensitive private information belonging to residents of Pinole, Hercules and elsewhere in Contra Costa County may have been stolen last year during a data breach, the county warns.

The breach happened at the county’s Employment and Human Services Department. The potentially pilfered information included names and one or more of the following: Social Security numbers; driver’s license or state-issued identification numbers; financial account numbers; passport numbers; medical information and health insurance information.

The breach happened between June 24 and August 12, 2021.

The county is notifying residents and employees who may have been impacted and is offering complimentary credit monitoring.

The county has also set up a dedicated, toll-free call center to answer questions: 1-855-604-1854. The call center may be reached from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

There is also information about the breach on the CoCo website.

A county investigation determined there was unauthorized access to employee email accounts during a two-month time frame last summer.

"The investigation did not determine whether any emails or attachments in the accounts were accessed or downloaded by the unauthorized individual," the county said in a news release last Friday. "However, the county could not rule out the possibility."

The investigation was completed March 11 and the county began mailing letters Friday to people impacted by the potential breach.

The county wants residents to know it has implemented additional safeguards and technical security measures and will continue to make further security enhancements.