South Carolina's tax agency brought in crisis PR counsel after a late October cyberattack compromised millions of social security numbers of taxpayers dating back to the late 1990s.
The S.C. Dept. of Revenue said on Oct. 29 that 3.6M social security numbers were potentially accessed in the attack, as well as credit and debit card numbers from 657K businesses in the state.
The tax entity inked a $160K pact with Chernoff Newman to handle crisis communications and run ads about the breach. CN has operations in Charleston, Columbia and Orlando.
The firm ran advertising and developed talking points for Gov. Nikki Haley, urging Haley to stress that the state is the victim of a sophisticated crime and pointing taxpayers to a phone number and website for help.
The Charleston Post and Courier, which first reported the hiring of the firm after a state Freedom of Information Act request on the breach, reported that the state's Dept. of Health and Human Services also hired the firm earlier this year after a staffer improperly accessed 228K Medicaid records.
The tax agency said it does not have the capacity to handle all of the tasks and outreach required by law in the wake of such a breach.