14 DAY TRIAL // As a result of a security breach, personal details of employees of several companies under the umbrella of The Metropolitan Companies, Inc., as well as of individuals that have submitted an application for employment, have been accessed without authorization.
In a letter sent to all parties affected by the security incident, the company informs that the IT department noticed signs of unauthorized access that potentially removed some of the documents.
The communication notes that the type of information the attacker(s) had access to includes name, address, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, past education and work history, and financial details.
The breach was detected on April 21 and, in order to prevent further damage, access to the systems was removed and a team of forensic experts was called in for in-depth investigation.
The Metropolitan Companies, Inc. has under its umbrella the following organizations: Metropolitan Interpreters and Translators, Inc., Metlang LLC, Metropolitan Hospitality, Inc., CTI Metropolitan LLC, and Metropolitan Temporaries.
As far as the measures taken to avoid such incidents in the future are concerned, the systems now benefit from better firewall protection and threat detection. Monitoring capabilities have also been extended.
The letter says that there are no signs of misuse of the stolen information but, “as an added precaution, we have secured the services of Kroll to provide identity theft protection at no cost to you for one year;” these include Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Consultation and Restoration, instructions about activating them being provided.
According to online sources, a number of 8,423 individuals are affected by the incident.