The Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) is warning citizens and offering free credit monitoring and identity protection service after a data breach exposed information on 1.3 million people in Montana.

Hackers breached one of the department's servers, but it is not known if they copied any personal data.


The DPHHS said that while records were exposed, no data was lost or deleted in the attack, and the availability of services will not be affected. The department did not disclose how the attackers were able to gain access to the server.

Although Montana has only 1 million residents, data was also stolen from the birth and death records from the state Vital Statistics office.

Regardless of whether the data was copied or will ever be put to use by the hackers, the largely rural state could find itself with a sizable bill to clean up the matter. Officials have begun to notify those affected that the Montana Government will be footing the bill for both identity theft insurance (up to $2m) and credit-monitoring services.