We regret to announce that the Catholic Charities North Dakota was the victim of a cyber incident where our email system was hacked and accessed during February 2021, impacting the mailboxes of six employees. Once the breach was formally detected on or about February 19, 2021, we retained cyber counsel and forensic experts to investigate, remediate, and restore all email operations to a safe and secure mode. At this time we have no evidence that any data accessed from our email system has been fraudulently used by any unauthorized person. We have taken enhanced security measures to protect the system going forward. Based on this incident, there may be potential exposure of our client’s personal information including social security numbers and personal health information in addition to potential name and date of birth exposure for family members/guardians, etc. of our clients. We have issued mail notifications to all clients/employees with exposed social security number and provided one year free credit monitoring, Notices were also mailed to all persons with exposed Personal Health Information and non-sensitive Personal Identifiable Information where we have an address in our files. We continue to search/ cross reference our data base to locate addresses for those persons with name and DOB exposure who are not clients of ours, and upon locating address a mailed notice will be issued. Meanwhile, if you have any questions about your specific information, you can email us at privacyofficer@catholiccharitiesnd.org or contact us toll free at 1-800-450-4457. We value your trust in our organization and we are doing everything possible to prevent any future exposure and keep your personal information safe.
