HANOVER COUNTY, Va. – Credit card information for Hanover County residents may have been compromised after a data breach of the Hanover County online payment system.
County officials say they were recently notified that online payments made between August 1, 2018 and January 9, 2019 through the Click2Gov portal were compromised.
Hanover residents use the portal to pay utilities and building inspection payments online.
Payments made over the phone and automatic withdrawals were not affected in the data breach, according to county officials.
Officials say the breach allowed credit card information to be taken during transactions by unauthorized individuals. Those officials say they have reason to believe that all credit card information entered into the Click2Gov system between the time frame may be at risk.
Information at risk includes customer names, credit card numbers, and expiration dates.
“The County immediately validated the claim and isolated the Click2Gov system from public access to try to find what information had been compromised and whether the County’s system was still vulnerable. The County has been working with MS-ISAC and CERT, outside agencies that deal with information breaches, to complete a full forensic analysis of what occurred. The County is also working with the software company and has built a new Click2Gov server using different software than the program that was involved in the original breach.”
Officials say the new version of the software does not contain the vulnerability that was used to steal the credit card information.
CBS 6 has reached out to Hanover County to find out how many residents were affected by the data breach.
For additional information, Hanover residents can contact Department of Public Utilities customer service at 804-365-6024 or email creditcard@hanovercounty.gov.
What should you do?
- Review any credit card and bank statements closely and report any unauthorized charges, no matter how small, to the card issuer immediately. The phone number to call is usually on the back of the payment card.
- Ask your credit card issuer/bank to deactivate any credit card you used on the Click2Gov website during the affected time period and to issue you a new card.
- Consider requesting a fraud alert to be placed on your credit file. A fraud alert tells creditors to contact you before they open any new accounts or change your existing accounts. You may call any of the three major credit bureaus listed below. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts. The initial fraud alert stays on your credit report for 90 days. You can renew it after 90 days.
- Request that all three credit reports be sent to you, free of charge, for your review. Even if you do not find any suspicious activity on your initial credit reports, the Federal Trade Commission recommends that you check your credit reports periodically. Thieves may hold stolen information to use at various times. Check your credit reports periodically to help spot problems and address them quickly.
- Equifax: Equifax.com or 1-800-525-6285
- Experian: Experian.com or 1-888-397-3742
- TransUnion: Transunion.com or 1-800-680-7289
