The South Carolina Department of Revenue — reeling from a massive cyberattack that exposed up to 3.6 million Social Security numbers and other sensitive information — has secured a $20 million loan to stem the damage.
The department will use the loan to pay for notifying affected taxpayers and providing them with a year of free credit monitoring, according to
The State newspaper.
The funding will also pay for the encrypting of data and for legal costs.
The loan — which represents half of the agency’s $41 million annual budget — will come from the state’s insurance reserve fund.
Along with Social Security numbers, 387,000 credit and debit card numbers used by state taxpayers may have been exposed to a cyberhacker.
"This is not a good day for South Carolina," Governor Nikki Haley said at a news conference in October when the breach was discovered. "I want this person slammed against the wall.’’
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