Minnesota DHS Acknowledges Increase in Targeted Phishing Attacks

Two phishing attacks on employees at the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) resulted in the possible leakage of about 21,000 Minnesotans’ personal information.

The state health agency issued a notice last week that explained over the last several months, several phishing campaigns have targeted Minnesota’s executive agencies, including DHS. Two of these attacks were deemed “successful,” in that hackers—once in June and another time in July—were able to gain access to the state email accounts of two DHS employees, using these accounts to send out spam emails. The agency’s IT department didn’t find out about the attacks until August, officials said.

According to DHS, the two email accounts contained information about some people who have interacted with DHS, including the Minnesota citizens who were notified. Examples of the type of information found in the email accounts at the time they were compromised include: first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, medical information, educational records, employment records, and/or financial information, officials noted.

The agency did add in its notice, “We currently have no evidence that this information was actually viewed, downloaded, or misused.”

According to a report in the Minnesota Star Tribune, this is just the latest cyberattack on Minnesota’s state agencies, “which fend off about 3 million hacking attempts daily, state officials have said. In fact, attacks are increasing, said Aaron Call, the chief information security officer for Minnesota IT Services, which provides technology services to state executive agencies,” according to that report.

In fact, in just the past nine months, “more than 700 security incidents have been reported affecting state agencies, Call said, adding that the attacks are becoming ‘more pervasive and more sophisticated,’” according to the Star Tribune report.