Skip to content
Tech News
← Back to articles

Texas government data breach allowed hackers to steal 3 million driver’s licenses and passports

read original more articles
Why This Matters

The Texas government experienced a significant data breach, exposing personal information of over 3 million individuals, including driver’s licenses and passports. This incident highlights the growing cybersecurity risks faced by government agencies and the importance of robust data protection measures. For consumers, it underscores the need for vigilance and proactive security practices to safeguard personal information.

Key Takeaways

In Brief

A data breach at a Texas state government department allowed hackers to take the driver’s license information and passport numbers of more than 3 million people, according to the state’s attorney general.

The incident is one of the largest data breaches to affect the state this year.

In a data breach notice on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website, the department said the state’s cybersecurity unit recently detected a security incident — the nature of which, or when, were not specified — that allowed hackers to access to the department’s license system vendor, which handles the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.

The department did not name the vendor, nor respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment about the incident, and whether the department has received any outreach from the hackers.

The breach also included email addresses, phone numbers and residential addresses of the affected license holders, the department said.