Cyber Incident Victim: Andromeda Systems

On or around May 3, 2023, Andromeda Systems, Inc., an organization categorized as Other Commercial and located at 440 Viking Drive, Suite 230, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 23452, experienced a security incident. The incident was formally discovered the following day on May 4, 2023. The breach was classified as an external system breach resulting from hacking activity. The unauthorized actor or actors successfully acquired a dataset containing sensitive personal information belonging to a total of 2,670 individuals. This compromised information included the name or another personal identifier of each affected individual in combination with their financial account number or credit/debit card number. Furthermore, this financial data was compromised in combination with the security code, access code, password, or PIN for the respective account, significantly increasing the potential for fraud and misuse.

The scope of the breach was national, though it directly impacted a small number of residents within the state of Maine. Specifically, two of the total affected individuals were identified as Maine residents. Because the total number of Maine residents exceeded one thousand, a threshold which triggers additional regulatory requirements, the entity did notify the consumer reporting agencies about the event as mandated by law. The organization, through its designated privacy counsel, provided a detailed submission to the Office of the Maine Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, under the Data Security Breaches notification protocol.

In response to the incident, Andromeda Systems, Inc. engaged external legal expertise from Octillo Law to manage the breach response process. The primary point of contact for the entity and for the state authorities was Daniel Greene, a Privacy Attorney at the firm, who acted in the capacity of Privacy Counsel for Andromeda Systems. His contact information, including telephone number 7168982102 and email address [email protected], was provided as the official channel for communications related to the breach notification. The entity elected to provide written notification to all consumers whose information was involved in the incident.

The timeline for consumer notification was notably delayed relative to the discovery of the breach. While the breach was discovered on May 4, 2023, the written notices to consumers were not dispatched until October 13, 2023. This delay of over five months between discovery and consumer notification indicates a prolonged period of investigation and analysis was conducted to determine the full scope and impact of the incident before proceeding with individual alerts. A sample of the notice letter sent to affected Maine residents was provided to the authorities for review under the filename "ASI Sample Notice Letter.pdf".

As a remedial measure to protect the affected individuals from potential identity theft and financial fraud, Andromeda Systems, Inc. offered comprehensive identity theft protection services. These services were provided by Kroll, a well-known provider in this field. The offering included a full suite of protective measures: credit monitoring to alert individuals to changes in their credit reports, fraud consultation to provide expert advice in case of suspected misuse, and identity theft restoration services to assist victims in recovering their identities and repairing any damage. The duration of these protection services was set for a period of twenty-four months, providing affected individuals with two years of continuous monitoring and support. There was no indication provided of any previous breach notifications having been issued by the entity within the twelve months preceding this incident. The confirmed impact of the breach remained the compromise of highly sensitive financial and personal data for thousands of individuals due to an external cyber intrusion.