Data breach exposes records of 1.8 million New York utilities customers
A data breach affecting 1.8 million customers of two New York utilities companies has recently been made public by the New York State Public Service Commission. The investigation into this data breach was initiated after an employee from a third party IT company contracted by New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E) was given unauthorized access to the company’s databases.
It is not clear if accessing the customer databases had any malicious intent, both affected companies claiming there was no proof of any data having been misused as a consequence of the breach. But, to stay on the safe side, they have decided to send out notifications regarding the data access, as it exposed Social Security Numbers, dates of birth and financial account information, as shown in the official press release sent out by the NY Commission.
“This investigation will seek a complete understanding of the root causes for this security breach, and the measures in place to protect against such a breach,” said the Commission’s Chairman Garry Brown.
NYSEG and RG&E have also partnered with credit service group Experian to offer free credit card monitoring to the 1.8 million customers affected by the data breach. They also promised their full cooperation to forensics experts and law enforcement.
