Record Number Of North Carolina Businesses And Organizations Hacked In 2021

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A record number of businesses and organizations in North Carolina were hacked in the last year. The data is according to a report released by the North Carolina Attorney General’s office.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein says more than 2000 data breaches impacting more than 2.5 million people happened in 2021.

“It’s like a 20 or 30% increase from last year, which was a record setting year,” said Stein.

He says hackers are using ransomware and phishing attacks to infiltrate businesses and organizations.

The Colonial Pipeline hack impacted millions of people and resulted in fuel shortages and long lines for gas.

“If you are taking in people’s personal information. Their names, their addresses, their social security numbers, their bank account information; you have got to have state of the art security measures in place to protect that information,” said Stein.

“I was astounded that yet again we’ve had another record year,” said Theresa Payton, the CEO of Fortilice Solutions, a cybersecurity firm.

She says businesses and organizations can take steps right away to protect data.

She suggests businesses and organizations get registered with Infragard, an FBI site that keeps people up to date on the latest hacks and how to protect against them.

Payton also says LeakPeek will let you scan email addresses and passwords to see if they’ve been used in prior hacks.

“It’s a constant and evolving battle that CEO’s and organizations have to play,” said Payton.

Payton also says to use multi-factor authentication to log into sites. More information can be found at Cisa.gov