Your details may likely have been compromised in a nearly 28 million Texas driver’s license breach. It was abused, says an insurance software firm with access to DMV data.
“It only makes me feel very uncomfortable to know that my data might be used for illegal operation,” reacted driver Amera Guest.”
For approximately 28 million Texas drivers who obtained a license before February 2019, driver’s license numbers, identities, birthdates, addresses, and car registration records were stolen.
James Lee, with the Identity Theft Resource Center, said that an identity thief could do a lot many things with this information. They can try to create a new account. Also, they can try to prove that they are you while they’re logging in to your existing account.
In a release, an insurance software firm named Vertafore, which has legitimate access to the DMV data claimed that the data was unintentionally deposited in an unsecured database service that was compromised between March and August of this year.
Since mid-August, Vertafore claims the organization has heard about the leak. Then why are they just announcing that now?
The company reports that it was confirmed to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Texas Department of Public Safety and wrote, “At the request of law enforcement, Vertafore’s notice was delayed.”
Vertafore claims they retained a third-party company to investigate. But so far they have not found any abuse of the results.
But for the Identity Fraud Information Center, James Lee says, give it time.
Lee explained: That’s what they may be waiting to use. But you’re not now walking out of the wilderness when a year has passed; two years have passed, three years have passed.
He says drivers should freeze their credit and modify their passwords for the account.
Lee also said: “Be very diligent about watching credit card statements and things of that nature. And ultimately consider upgrading some passwords. The advice we give people today is don’t have a password, have a passphrase.”
He states that different users don’t use the same passwords.
