Forest Park announces data breach, warns of potential for private information being compromised
The City of Forest Park announced Tuesday that they had been hit with a network disruption and unauthorized access to private information back in July 2024.
City officials said they performed a full investigation completed March 10 and learned some personal information 'kept in the normal course of business may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party.' That includes first and last name in combination with Social Security numbers, driver's license information, date of birth, passport number and state ID numbers.
They took steps to secure their network and hired a third-party forensic firm to investigate the incident but said it's possible some of the private information may have been compromised.
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'Although the forensic investigation could not rule out the possibility that an unknown actor may have accessed this information, there is no indication whatsoever that any information has been misused at this time,' city officials said in a statement.
The city said they were notifying people who may be affected by mail, if it has their addresses on file.
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Additionally, Forest Park said officials were providing impacted people with complimentary credit monitoring services and were putting new security measures in place in its network and facilities for data security.
'Although Forest Park has no evidence of actual misuse of information as a result of this incident, individuals are nonetheless encouraged to monitor their account statements and explanation of benefits forms for suspicious activity and to detect errors,' the city said.
For those who may be impacted and want to contact major credit agencies to place a fraud alert on their credit report, the following phone numbers are available:
Equifax: 888-378-4329
TransUnion: 833-395-6938
Experian 888-397-3472
Forest Park has also set up a call center to answer questions about the incident. The center can be called Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 1-800-939-4170.
In the meantime, city officials are urging residents to be vigilant in case of identity theft and fraud by reviewing credit reports and account statements and being on the lookout for suspicious activity or errors.
The city also reminded residents that by federal law, it is illegal to charge someone money in order to place or lift a credit freeze on a credit report.
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