The county's former flexible benefit spending accounts administrator, Interactive Medical Systems, experienced a data security breach that exposed the names, dates of service and partial social security numbers of the affected employees, Wake County officials said.
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"We sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern that this matter may have caused," said Eric Ludwig, president of Interactive Medical Systems.
The breach occurred from July 19 to Dec. 31.
Officials said the flexible spending accounts administrator is sending letters to the affected employees. A small group of those affected had their names, addresses and full social security numbers exposed and are eligible for a year of free credit monitoring from IMS.
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The county said the personal information of any other Wake County employees or residents were not affected.
"It's important to note that this was not a breach of a county system, nor was it caused by a county employee," said Wake County's Chief Information and Innovation Officer Bill Greeves. "IMS has confirmed the breach was the result of a phishing attack against an IMS employee."
IMS has since taken action to prevent further security breaches.
Wake County ended its contract with IMS on Dec. 31.