Thousands of McKinney, Texas, residents impacted by October data breach

A large suburb of Dallas informed thousands of residents that a cyberattack in October exposed sensitive information.

The city of McKinney, about 35 minutes outside of Dallas, said its government systems were breached on October 31 but security systems only discovered the attack on November 14. 

City officials did not respond to requests for comment about whether it was a ransomware attack or if the hackers identified themselves. After the incident was discovered, the city’s IT team “severed any unauthorized activity” and contacted the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Texas Department of Information. 

“Our investigation determined that certain files may have been exposed without authorization,” the city said in breach notification letters and in a notice on the government website. 

“On December 30, 2024, after completing the review, the City learned certain personal or sensitive information contained in its environment may have been exposed as result of the incident. Since that time, the City has been working diligently to identify and obtain sufficient information in order to provide you with this notice.”

In total, the city said 17,751 of its 213,000 residents were impacted by the breach. Notices were filed with regulators in Maine, Texas, Vermont and other states. 

The city began sending breach notification letters out to victims on Tuesday. The sample letters do not say what information was stolen but the online notice says names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, credit card information, financial account data and medical insurance information were taken.

Victims are being given one year of identity protection services. City officials noted they have “reason to believe that there was potentially sensitive employee information impacted in the incident.”

No ransomware gang or hacking group has taken credit for the attack. This is the latest cyber incident to impact local governments in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Dallas’ city and county governments have both suffered ransomware attacks in the last year while Fort Worth and other municipalities have faced cyberattacks. 

Another Dallas suburb about 20 minutes away from McKinney similarly dealt with a ransomware attack in September. 

Last week, a Texas county government that serves about 40,000 residents was forced to declare a disaster following a cyberattack.