Archdiocese of Denver's database hacked

The Archdiocese of Denver is taking proactive measures to protect the personal information of its employees – an effort prompted by an isolated data breach and an unexplained spike in the number of personnel reporting tax fraud.

 

Now, the archdiocese is providing services to provide monitoring and identity repair services for 12 months at no cost to all individuals in the affected system.

 

In October, “an unknown person or persons” gained unauthorized access into the payroll software system used by the archdiocese, a letter sent to all employees last week explained.

 

It was signed by Keith Parsons, Chief Financial Officer of the Archdiocese of Denver.

 

The database breach involved a limited number of employees, former employees, dependents and beneficiaries.

 

Information accessed included names, mailing addresses and social security numbers. Those affected were notified immediately of the incident and offered ID theft monitoring and identity repair services.

 

Other employees not identified in the original breach, however, have since come forward with cases of tax-refund fraud. It’s now believed that the scope of the breach was more serious and involved more employees.

 

“Since first learning of the incident, we have been working with the Archdiocese’s third-party payroll provider to understand how the incident occurred and the potential number of impacted employees, and to ensure that the integrity of our data is restored,” Parsons wrote in the letter. “In addition, we added additional security measures to hopefully prevent similar incidents in the future.”

 

Despite the archdiocese’s offer of free services, every employee is urged to be vigilant in monitoring their financial accounts, social security number, and their credit report.