Many Duluth residents will be receiving letters in the mail informing them that personal information may have been exposed due to an email phishing incident at city hall.

When I got home yesterday, both my wife and me received letters from the city which I thought was odd right off the bat. As we opened them and started to read, I was surprised to find out that Duluth was targeted in a phishing incident.

According to WDIO, an email account was compromised the Duluth city clerk's office. The employee's email account contained voter registration lists, a business license report, business license application documents for four businesses, and internal job applicant information for 14 people. The city said it has not been able to determine of the perpetrator actually accessed any of the information.

Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported the email intruder could have accessed several potentially sensitive documents, including:

  • A voter registration list that contained 55,184 voter names, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth
  • A business license report that contained about 427 business names, addresses, some Social Security numbers and tax ID numbers
  • Four business license applications that contained names, addresses, birth dates, tax ID numbers, Social Security numbers and driver’s license or passport numbers
  • Job applicant information for 14 people, containing personal contact information, driver’s license numbers and questionnaire responses

The phishing incident happened on August 14th, 2016 and wasn't discovered until August 22nd, 2016. Duluth Chief Administrative Officer Dave Montgomery said:

It was just an email account. It wasn’t our core files. It's a relatively low level of personal information in the scheme of identity issues, but it is a piece of information that we're not only required to, but it's appropriate that we notify everyone to say 'Okay this information is out there.

The city recommends that voters monitor credit reports. The offer a few ways to recieve free credit reports: either go to annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228. A call center has also  been set up for those who have questions or to request a detailed report of the investigation. The number is 1-844-565-4395 or (218)-730-4987.

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