March 23, 2022

The St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Provides Notice of Data Security Incident

The privacy and security of personal information is of the utmost importance to the St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, which recently learned that that an unauthorized party may have obtained access to one employee email account. Upon learning of this issue, the St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller immediately launched an investigation in consultation with outside cybersecurity professionals who regularly investigate and analyze these types of incidents. The St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller devoted considerable time and effort to determine what information may have been accessible to unauthorized users. 

After an extensive forensic investigation and manual document review, the St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller discovered on March 3, 2022 that the email account that was accessed by an unauthorized party between June 25, 2021 and November 24, 2021 contained personal information.   The information included full names and one or more of the following: Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial account information, payment card information, driver’s license numbers as well as some medical information.

To date, the St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller is not aware of any reports of identity fraud or improper use of any information as a direct result of this incident.  Out of an abundance of caution, the St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller provided notification of this incident commencing on March 23, 2022 to impacted individuals. Impacted individuals are encouraged to take steps to protect themselves against identity fraud, including enrolling in complimentary credit monitoring services, if a Social Security number was impacted, placing a fraud alert/security freeze on their credit files, obtaining free credit reports, and remaining vigilant in reviewing financial account statements and credit reports for fraudulent or irregular activity on a regular basis.

The St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller is committed to maintaining the privacy of personal information in its possession and has taken many precautions to safeguard it. The St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller continually evaluates and modifies its practices and internal controls to enhance the security and privacy of personal information.

Individuals with questions concerning this incident may call a dedicated and confidential toll-free response line that the St. Lucie County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller has set up to respond to questions at  844-570-2261. The response line is available Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. EST, with the exception of US Holidays.