(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- The attorney general of California released a letter of apology last week after a revelation that the private information of people who applied for a concealed carry permit was leaked from one of the state’s proprietary databases.
According to Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, the state Department of Justice’s gun database was breached recently, and the names, dates of birth, home addresses and license plate numbers for thousands of people who applied for a concealed carry permit were leaked. That list included 420 reserve officers as well as 244 judges in the state.
As part of a “make-up” to those whose information was compromised, the DOJ in California is providing one years’ worth of credit monitoring to those people as well as setting up a call center that’s supposed to help them if they have issues.
In a letter that Bonta sent to those who were affected, the attorney general wrote:
“We sincerely regret the unacceptable disclosure of your personal data, and I offer my sincerest apology on behalf of the entire Department of Justice.”
He added that the DOJ wasn’t currently aware of any identity theft that had yet come about due to the information that was leaked. However, they would be monitoring the entire situation on an ongoing basis to make sure that didn’t happen.
The letter continued:
“We are also offering complimentary access to credit monitoring services through IDX, which includes: 12 months of triple-bureau credit monitoring, CyberScan dark web monitoring, a $1,000,000 insurance reimbursement policy, and fully managed ID theft recovery services.”
The letter and the offer of condolences and “help” was “too little too late,” though, according to the president of the state’s Rifle and Pistol Association, Chuck Michel. He recently spoke to the Daily Caller and said of Bonta:
“His offer of free credit counseling is woefully inadequate and doesn’t address the magnitude of the screw-up or the intensity of the fear that everyone who has been doxed by the DOJ now feels.”
Earlier in the month, he appeared on the Dana Loesch Show, saying that the response from the attorney general’s office wasn’t up to what it should have been. Michel said then:
“There are people out there who are scared. There’s going to be blood on the attorney general’s hands over this. Somebody’s going to get hurt or killed.”
The breach occurred on June 28, and resulted in the private information of thousands of people being leaked from concealed carry permit applications that were filed between 2011 to 2021.
What’s worse, Bonta also said that data from other gun registries might’ve been compromised, too. Those registries are the Gun Violence Restraining Order, the Firearm Certification System, the Dealer Record of Sale, the Assault Weapon registry and five other registries.
Data must be protected at all costs in this day and age. There are almost always bad actors looking to take advantage of cracks in the security of online systems.
And as many of the people who were affected by this breach have said, it’s “shameful” that a breach of this kind happened at one of the state of California’s governmental systems.
