Gardner Resources Consulting is providing notice of a cybersecurity incident. This notification provides information about the event, the company’s response to it, and resources available to individuals to help protect their information, should they feel it necessary to do so.
What happened?
Gardner Resources Consulting, LLC (“GRC”) is committed to safeguarding the privacy and security of personal information entrusted to it. On September 3, 2021, GRC experienced a cybersecurity incident and took immediate steps to secure its systems and investigate the nature and scope of the incident with assistance of cybersecurity experts. Ultimately, the investigation was unable to determine how the perpetrators gained access to the system or specifically what data they may have been able to access. However, GRC has since been able to fully restore and secure its systems. Out of an abundance of caution and to address any potential issues, we have worked to identify any individuals for whom GRC might have maintained some data. GRC is in the process of notifying those individuals.
What is GRC doing?
Although GRC has always taken great care to ensure the protection of the data it maintains, we have implemented additional measures to further protect our systems, including conducting further training of employees to identify potentially malicious emails. We also retained information security experts to review our technological protections and actively monitor our systems for unusual activity. To help relieve concerns following this incident, GRC is providing notice to potentially affected individuals and offering them at least 12 months of free credit monitoring and related services.
Also Read: Bolstering Container Security to Minimize Cyber-Attack Threats
What should you do?
If you were potentially affected by this incident, please remain vigilant and take the following steps to protect your information:
- Contact the nationwide credit-reporting agencies as soon as possible to add a fraud alert statement to your credit file at all three national credit-reporting agencies;
- Remove your name from mailing lists of pre-approved offers of credit for approximately six months;
- Request and carefully review a free copy of your credit report by going to www.annualcreditreport.com;
- Carefully review all bills and credit card statements you receive to see if there are items you did not contract for or purchase;
- Carefully review all of your bank account statements frequently for checks, purchases, or deductions not made by you;
- The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) offers consumer assistance and educational materials relating to identity theft, privacy issues, and how to avoid identity theft, such as by setting up fraud alerts or placing a “security freeze” on your credit accounts. The FTC can be contacted either by visiting www.ftc.gov, www.consumer.gov/idtheft, or by calling (877) 438-4338. If you suspect or know that you are the victim of identity theft, you should contact local law enforcement or the attorney general, and you can also contact the Fraud Department of the FTC, which will collect all information and make it available to law enforcement agencies. The FTC can be contacted at the website or phone number above, or at the mailing address below:
Federal Trade Commission
Consumer Response Center
600 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20580
For Maryland residents: You may contact the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, 200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202, www.oag.state.md.us, 1-888-743-0023.
For North Carolina residents: You may contact the North Carolina Office of the Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001, www.ncdoj.gov, 1-877-566-7226.
For New York residents: The Attorney General may be contacted at: Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341; 1-800-771-7755; https://ag.ny.gov/.
For Connecticut residents: You may contact the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General, 165 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106, 1-860-808-5318, www.ct.gov/ag.
For Massachusetts residents: You may contact the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, 1 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108, 1-617-727-8400, www.mass.gov/ago/contact-us.html
Reporting of identity theft and obtaining a police report.
For Iowa residents: You are advised to report any suspected identity theft to law enforcement or to the Iowa Attorney General.
For Massachusetts residents: You have the right to obtain a police report if you are a victim of identity theft.
For Oregon residents: You are advised to report any suspected identity theft to law enforcement, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Oregon Attorney General.
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