NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New York Legal Assistance Group ("NYLAG") is providing notice of an incident involving potential unauthorized access to personal information. To date, NYLAG has not received any reports that personal information has been misused as a result of this incident.

NYLAG discovered unusual activity in an employee email account and immediately launched an investigation with the assistance of a third-party computer forensic investigator to determine the full nature and scope of what occurred. Through this investigation, NYLAG determined that an unknown actor gained access to certain NYLAG employee email accounts between November 19, 2019 and February 7, 2020. The email credentials were immediately changed, and the email accounts were secured.

The confidentiality, privacy, and security of information is one of NYLAG's highest priorities. Upon discovering this incident, NYLAG moved quickly to investigate and took steps to further secure its systems. The investigation determined the following type of information was contained in the email accounts: name, Social Security number, driver's license or other government issued ID number, financial account information, passport number, and payment card information.

Immediately after learning of the incident, NYLAG undertook an extensive manual and programmatic review of the contents of the email accounts to determine what information was contained in the accounts and to whom the information related.  Once the review was completed, NYLAG then began conducting a thorough review of its files to obtain address information for potentially impacted individuals. NYLAG is evaluating its current security protocols in order to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future. Although NYLAG is unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of information as a result of this event, NYLAG is notifying potentially affected individuals out of an abundance of caution. NYLAG will also notify necessary regulatory bodies.

Please call 1-844-951-2886 or visit the NYLAG website at https://www.nylag.org for more information.  Potentially affected individuals may also consider the information and resources outlined below.

NYLAG encourages potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud, to review account statements, and to monitor their credit reports for suspicious activity.  Individuals may contact the three major credit reporting agencies for advice on how to obtain free credit reports and how to place fraud alerts and security freezes on credit files. The relevant contact information is below:

Potentially impacted individuals may also find information regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, security freezes and the steps they may take to protect their information by contacting the credit bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission or their state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC  20580; www.identitytheft.gov; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261.  New York residents can contact the attorney general at Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341; 1-800-771-7755; https://ag.ny.gov/.

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SOURCE New York Legal Assistance Group