Victims of hacking province of Gelderland advised to apply for a new passport

Employees of the province of Gelderland are advised to apply for a new passport. The province is doing this in response to a hack in August, in which the personnel data of 1,400 provincial employees were stolen.

All employees will be given the opportunity to apply for a new passport, writes the Gelderlander. The province of Gelderland will bear the costs for this. This is a voluntary choice. Employees who are concerned about their data can apply for a new passport, a spokesperson told the newspaper. 1,400 personnel files were downloaded by criminals during the hack. In total, the province employs about 1,600 employees.

The province of Gelderland is following the advice of the Ministry of the Interior. When employees apply for a new passport, they can register their old passport as stolen. If someone then misuses the stolen data, employees can prove that it was not them, a spokesperson tells the US.

The hack came to light in August. This would have taken place at an external IT company, with which the province of Gelderland collaborated. This collaboration has since been discontinued. Shortly after the hack, the province reported to the police and started an Incident Response Team. It also acts as a source of information for the staff. Notification has also been made to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

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