Letters sent to Rhode Islanders affected by RIBridges data breach

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Gov. Dan McKee held a press conference Friday giving an update on the data breach of the RIBridges system.

The governor said that approximately 657,000 Rhode Island residents have had their information compromised, and officials have started sending out letters to those impacted.

The letters include a code for residents to access five years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection through Experian.

They will also be eligible for lifetime identity theft protection.

McKee added that Deloitte, the state vendor managing RIBridges, was still reviewing the breach, and said it was likely that more impacted residents will be identified.

“If you think you are impacted and do not receive a letter in the next few days, we ask you to be patient and give the mail a few additional days to arrive before immediately calling the hotline,” McKee said.

Chief Digital Officer Brian Tardiff said the state had been told the security  issue that led to the breach has been fixed.

“The findings in these reports provide us a high level of confidence that we know how this threat was executed and have taken the appropriate measures to ensure the system can be restored safely,” he said.

The RIBridges Data Breach Hotline can be reached at 833-918-6603 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The governor added that the hotline will not be able to sign residents up for credit monitoring or identify if they were affected without a code.

The deadline to sign up for the free credit monitoring was set as April 30.

Officials added that they have seen no evidence that anyone affected has lost money due to the breach.

More information on the breach can be found here.