58,000 Hillsborough Residents Impacted By Elections Office Breach

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — An investigation into a cybersecurity breach at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office has confirmed that an unauthorized user illegally accessed and copied files containing personal identification information.

The personal information of 58,000 voters was illegally accessed, including Social Security and driver's license numbers, mostly from files used by the elections office to maintain the county's voter registration list.

The elections office is mandated by the state to continually review and update its voter roll. The elections office uses the list to perform that task.

Those 58,000 people will receive notification letters this week to make them aware that their information has been illegally accessed.

Related: Cyberattack On Hillsborough Elections System Under Investigation

The investigation found that the voter registration system and the ballot tabulation system, which have additional layers of security, were not accessed.

On May 3, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office Craig Latimer reported the breach to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the FBI, the Center for Internet Security, the Florida Department of State and the cybersecurity division of Hillsborough County's Information and Innovation Office.

Since the criminal investigation is still active, no further information can be shared at this time, according to Latimer.

"It's my intent to provide the public with as much information as possible without compromising the integrity of the investigation," Latimer said. "As someone who spent 35 years in law enforcement, I take all criminal activity seriously, and I consider an intrusion into an elections office an extremely serious offense."