Data Breach Information

As you may know, during the last week of May 2021, City of Bridgeport (“Bridgeport”) was the victim of a cyber-attack involving ransomware. Ransomware is a form of malware that is used by hackers to prevent users from accessing files, and, in some cases, to extract and hold data hostage until a ransom is paid. We are writing to notify you that some of your personal information may have been affected by this incident. In particular, the threat actor claims that it extracted data, including personal information, from our systems.

We are notifying you of this event and the steps you can take to protect yourself. We have also arranged to provide you with one year of free credit monitoring.

We discovered the attack on or about May 27, 2021, and promptly took steps to secure our systems and to begin investigating the nature and scope of the incident. We have engaged leading outside security experts to assist with our investigation, and have implemented various cyber security enhancements. We have notified the FBI and are supporting their criminal investigations to bring the attackers to justice. Bridgeport takes our obligation to safeguard personal information very seriously and we continue to evaluate actions to further strengthen our network security.

Information stored on the affected Bridgeport systems may have included social security numbers, dates of birth, and home addresses as well as law enforcement records and other personal data.

We are alerting you about this issue so you can take steps to help protect your identity and credit information. You are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free at 1-877-322-8228. We encourage you to remain vigilant by reviewing your account statements and monitoring your free credit reports.

In addition, we have arranged to offer credit monitoring and identity restoration services from Experian at no cost to you.

We deeply regret that this incident occurred and are committed to supporting you. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please call 888 397-0031 toll-free Monday through Friday from 9 am – 11 pm Eastern, or Saturday and Sunday from 11 am – 8 pm Eastern (excluding major U.S. holidays). Be prepared to provide your engagement number B018164. To receive your code for credit monitoring please reach out to data_breach@bridgeportwv.com.