Data breach hits San Diego low-income preschool provider

by Alina Bizga on February 10, 2020

An intruder illegally accessed an employee email account at San Diego, California-based preschool education provider Enrichment Systems, Inc (EES) and may have viewed sensitive personal information of parents and students, the firm said in a press release last week.

The non-profit organization, which focuses on serving children ages 18 months to 5 years of age from low-income families, said in a data breach notice on its website that it became aware of suspicious email activity on an employee’s account on August 30, 2019. Upon further investigation, it found unauthorized access of the employee’s account between May 27, 2019 and July 15, 2019.

The EES gave no further details on who may have accessed the account, but said it reviewed the email and files on the account to determine the impact. It “determined that sensitive personal information was in the emails and/or attachments thereto,” but found no evidence of “attempted or actual misuse of sensitive information”.

The notice says information that may be affected by the event includes “individual’s name, address, Social Security number, financial information, health insurance information, student education records, as well as medical history and treatment information.”

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Besides notifying everybody whose’ personal information was in the email account, the EES pledged to provide free credit monitoring and identity protection services to those affected.

They may also call the dedicated call center for security-related queries and review the tips on how to protect against identity theft provided in the notice. The EES advises victims to pay attention to their bank accounts and monitor their credit reports for any fraudulent activity that should immediately be reported to the local authorities.

Data breaches go hand in hand with identity-related crimes. A criminal can use stolen personal information in many ways, such as registering a false tax return, credit card fraud and acquiring medical insurance in another’s name. Awareness and vigilance are only key pieces when it comes to protecting your sensitive information.