Accounting Firm Brady Martz and Associates Suffers Huge Data Breach
Table of Contents
- By Steven
- Published: Sep 29, 2023
- Last Updated: Nov 23, 2023
Brady Martz & Associates is an accounting firm in Crookston, Minnesota. The company offers audits, business valuation, forensic accounts, employee benefit plans, and more. The company has more than 270 employees and generates over $63 million in assets annually. The organization maintains extensive data files for a large number of individuals, and those customers are at risk because the firm recently suffered from a data breach.
How Did the Attack Occur?
While we don't have all the specifics, we know Brady Martz & Associates suffered a breach around November 19, 2022, thanks to a filing with the Attorney General of Maine. At that time, the company's files were broken into, and Brady Martz & Associates hired a team of cyber experts to investigate the incident and determine what information was lost.
What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?
During the investigation, it was determined that Social Security numbers, full names, health insurance information, driver's license numbers, state identification numbers, and more could have been lost. Different data points were lost for different people, but everyone involved is at risk of losing important data. You should be aware of this problem if you rely on an accounting firm to handle your data.
How Did Brady Martz & Associates Admit to the Breach?
The Minnesota accounting firm began informing the public of the breach by creating an in-depth report and sending it to the Maine Attorney General's office. The organization also crafted individual notices to send to everyone whose information was involved in the breach. Between these two separate efforts, it should be easy to determine whether your data was involved in the breach.
What Will Become of the Stolen Information?
The stolen data is likely to be used for identity theft and to aid phishing attacks. These two efforts could result in serious damage for the victims involved, and it's a problem that everyone must be aware of. If you get a notice explaining to you that your data was involved in the breach, you should be ready to react to any potential problems that come from the breach. The incident could lead to huge data losses and cause major problems for you.
What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?
If you are impacted by this data breach, you should immediately take a few steps to protect yourself. The first thing to do is check your credit and see if any changes have occurred. Looking at your credit, you can learn about unwanted accounts and potential identity theft attacks. This is why so many breach victims invest in credit monitoring services to watch for unexpected changes.
After checking your credit, you can either freeze your credit to prevent unwanted use in the future, or you can closely monitor all your accounts for changes and prepare to react if anything goes wrong. You should be okay if you watch your accounts and credit closely and notify organizations if anything changes. You must also take care not to give out your personal information to those without authorization. If you protect your data carefully, you can prevent most of the common problems caused by data theft.
