Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials notified sportsmen on Friday about a “cybersecurity incident” that potentially impacted millions of license-holding hunters and fishermen. They are now warning customers that some of their personal information may have been exposed as a result of the hack, which was first discovered Texas Cyber Command. TPWD said the violations involved a vendor who handles the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
In its Press release Ahead of 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 of more than 3 million license holders. Investigators believe that more important personal information – things like Social Security numbers and credit card details – were not obtained as a result of the hack, and there is no evidence indicating that any particular group was targeted.
“We understand the seriousness of the issue and have identified and implemented additional security options to better protect customer information,” TPWD acknowledged. “Many of our employees are hunters and fishermen and have been impacted by this incident.”
Read further: The OnX Effect: Digital mapping apps have changed the way we hunt. Now what will they do with all our data?
The agency said it would continue to work with the license vendor to implement new security measures. The officials also shared the following precautionary measures for license holders:
- Proactively monitoring for fraud and identifying theft by reviewing your credit reports and financial statements
- Checking, Freezing, and Monitoring Your Credit
- Set up a free, one-year fraud alert through Equifax, experianAnd transunion
- Avoid clicking links or sharing personal details unless you are sure the request is legitimate
TPWD says license sales will continue as planned for August and the next license year.
