OLYMPIA A vulnerability involving a washington state department of Transportation system may have exposed personal information stored in an internal database of about 2,200 people, and the office is reaching out to help notify them of the incident. It is not known if anyone obtained the information for illegal use, and the vulnerability within the system is now resolved. The database system is not connected to any other databases outside of WSDOT. Because some personal information was included in the database, WSDOT, in an copiousness of caution, has band up a call center to locate and verify those who may have been affected and provide info and services. Who is affected? Those affected by this incident are: 2,249 trainees employed by private contractors on federally funded WSDOT projects between 1986 and 2021 Participants in the federal On-The-Job training program The vulnerable personal information included first and last names and the last quatern digits of social security numbers. To be clear, the information did not include individuals’ full social security numbers, and no other personal information was involved. The hours worked by these individuals are tracked by WSDOT’s Construction contract info system to verify submission with the federal training program requirements. The personal information is used to verify the trainees’ certification requirements. These were not WSDOT employees, but rather people who worked for contractors in trainee positions on construction projects. WSDOT does not have touch information for those affected, so the bureau is making a public notification. Anyone who participated in the On-The-Job preparation program as a trainee for a WSDOT contractor, can telephone 1-844-917-4454 or visit the agency’s�data incident webpage�for further details and info about free credit monitoring for eligible affected individuals. moderation steps WSDOT learned on Dec. 29, 2021, that an older data system maintained by the office was able to be manipulated in a way to extract information from the database. WSDOT immediately addressed the certificate issue by applying a security jam on this system within hours of learning of the vulnerability to prevent similar access and then verifying whose information had been vulnerable. WSDOT has consulted with commonwealth cybersecurity officials and the Attorney General’s Office on this affair and is evaluating policies to further strengthen systems, eliminate unneeded data more quickly and increment training on these matters. Source: Washington state Transportation Department