The theft of 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit card numbers from the South Carolina Department of Revenue is putting state tax departments across the country on guard, The New York Times reports. National Federation of Tax Administrators Deputy Director Verenda Smith said, “When one employee’s laptop gets stolen, it’s a big deal…So you can imagine the reverberations when this news came out.” Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Director Beth Givens said this event “appears to be in a league of its own,” and former state senator John Hawkins has filed a lawsuit against the state. “Obviously these hackers picked South Carolina because it was vulnerable,” he said. (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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