TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Those who use the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation services might want to check their personal information. The company says its vendor experienced a "cybersecurity incident" involving the personal data of online applicants and enrollees.
"FHKC has no confirmation at this time that anyone’s personal information was removed from the system," it wrote in a release.
Jelly Bean Communications Design, LLC, which was responsible for hosting the website at the time, was tapped into in December of 2020, the release said.
According to a press release, several thousand applicant addresses were "inappropriately" accessed and tampered with. Cybersecurity experts found vulnerabilities in the hosted website platform and databases that support the company's online application.
"FHKC learned that these vulnerabilities spanned a seven-year period from November 2013 until December 2020," the company added.
Both the website and database were temporarily shut down after the incident in 2020. Due to the tampering of applicant addresses and the risk of potential exposure of personal information dating back to 2013, FHKC says the incident is a reportable data breach.
Those who used the system during the impacted time might have had their name, date of birth, email address, phone number, physical address and Social Security number, among others, exposed.
To help protect against "potential harm," FHKC recommends users take the following steps:
- Setting up fraud alerts
- Security freezes
- Monitoring their accounts
"FHKC is committed to taking every reasonable step to prevent future breaches, which will include a review of our current security practices and policies to identify ways to strengthen them," the company wrote.
A transition to a new website vendor is being expedited.
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