Fayette County is the latest victim of a data breach that is being felt around the world.
In a news release, the south metro community said that EMS Management and Consultants, Inc., which manages billing for Fayette’s fire and emergency services, may have been exposed to a breach of the file transfer tool MOVEit on May 31 and again sometime in June.
As many as 2,625 individuals associated with Fayette County Fire and Emergency Services may have had their information impacted in the event.
A steady stream of businesses, colleges and government agencies around the world have announced over the past three months that their data could be at risk because of an international breach to MOVEit. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, departments of transportation in Oregon and Louisiana, British Airways, oil company Shell, Indiana-based First Merchants Bank and numerous others have reported their customers may have been impacted.
Closer to home, the University of Georgia in June reported that the school likely suffered “unauthorized access” to information it stored through MOVEit.
“EMS MC’s investigation determined that an unknown actor exploited vulnerabilities, accessed the MOVEit Transfer server on May 30, 2023, and took certain data from the MOVEit Transfer server during that time,” Fayette County leaders said. “EMS MC subsequently undertook a time-consuming and detailed review of the data stored on the server at the time of this incident to understand the contents of that data and to whom that data relates.”
The consultancy patched the tool and took mitigation steps to safeguard customer data, the county said. EMS Management and Consultants is working with third party cybersecurity specialists to determine potential impact to the tool and the data housed on the server, the county said.
EMS Management and Consultants said it is unaware of any attempted misuse of information obtained in the breach, but is notifying impacted customers. Those affected should review their account statements and explanation of benefits for unusual activity.
