Berks County Bar Association

Summary

A data breach at the Berks County Bar Association, located in Berwick, Pennsylvania, resulted from an external system hacking incident discovered about a month after the initial occurrence. The breach exposed the personal information of 560 individuals, including one Maine resident, and compromised names or other personal identifiers. Counsel for the organization submitted the breach notification, and written notifications were sent to affected consumers approximately two months after discovery. The organization also offered twelve months of identity theft protection services to those impacted.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

The Berks County Bar Association, an organization located at 544 Court Street in Berwick, Pennsylvania, with ZIP code 18603, experienced a data breach that compromised the personal information of 560 individuals, including one Maine resident. The breach was characterized as an external system breach involving hacking, indicating that an unauthorized external actor successfully gained access to the organization's systems. The notification was submitted to the Office of the Maine Attorney General on behalf of the entity by Tawana Johnson, a Partner at the law firm Lewis Brisbois, who serves as counsel to the Berks County Bar Association. The submission was made in compliance with state data breach notification requirements, and the details were recorded in the consumer protection data breach notifications database maintained by the Maine AG's office.

The breach occurred on February 6, 2025, and was subsequently discovered on March 10, 2025, approximately one month after the initial intrusion. Once the breach was detected, the Berks County Bar Association took steps to notify the affected individuals through written notification, which was dispatched on May 8, 2025, nearly two months after the breach was discovered and three months after the breach occurred. The compromised data included names or other personal identifiers, although the specific types of personal information exposed were not elaborated in the available source material. In response to the breach, the organization offered identity theft protection services to the affected individuals, with the services being provided for a duration of 12 months. The notification letter, which was provided as a redacted document, was made available to affected Maine residents and is part of the public record maintained by the Maine AG's office.

The breach notification did not specify the exact nature of the external system breach or the methods used by the attackers to gain unauthorized access. The source material also did not provide details regarding the specific systems affected, the duration of the unauthorized access beyond the stated breach date, or the measures taken to contain and remediate the breach. The notification indicated that the breach was reported to the Maine AG's office, and the affected individuals were offered identity theft protection services as a precautionary measure to mitigate the potential consequences of the data exposure. The entity's classification as "Other Commercial" suggests that the Berks County Bar Association operates as a professional organization, likely providing legal resources and services to its members, which may have included access to sensitive member information that was affected in this incident. The response actions taken by the organization, including the timely notification to affected individuals and the provision of identity theft protection services, reflect the steps required to address the breach and protect the affected parties from potential identity theft or other forms of fraud resulting from the exposure of their personal information.

Sources

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