Officials with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department notified sportsmen Friday of a “cybersecurity incident” that has potentially affected millions of license-holding hunters and anglers. They are now warning customers that some of their personal information may have been exposed as a result of the hack, which was first detected by Texas Cyber Command. TPWD said the breach involved the vendor that handles the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
In its press release before the weekend, TPWD said that according to TCC’s investigation, a hacker may have obtained driver’s license information, passport numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, and residential addresses for more than 3 million license holders. Investigators believe that more important personal information — things like Social Security numbers and credit card details — was not obtained as a result of the hack, and there is no evidence showing that any particular group was targeted.
“We recognize the seriousness of the issue and have identified and implemented additional security options to better protect customer information,” TPWD acknowledged. “Many of our staff are hunters and anglers and were affected by this incident.”
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The agency added that it will continue to work with the license vendor to implement new safeguards. Officials also shared the following precautionary measures for license holders:
- Actively monitoring for fraud and identifying theft by reviewing your credit report and financial statements
- Checking, freezing, and monitoring your credit
- Setting a free, one-year fraud alert through Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion
- Avoiding clicking links or sharing personal details unless you can be sure the request is legitimate
TPWD says license sales will continue as planned for August and the next license year.
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