Thousands of employees and their families at the Connecticut based Affinion Group are at risk for identity theft after the company said W2 form information was hacked in a phishing scam.
“None of our systems were breached as a part of this incident and no customer information was involved,” Affinion Group spokesperson James McCusker said in a statement to NBC Connecticut.
“We have notified authorities and are currently working with the affected current and former employees to help them take the necessary steps to safeguard their personal information in the wake of this incident, including providing credit and ID theft monitoring services.”
Personal information of less than 3,000 current and former employees of the company based in Stamford could be exposed to the public. That includes their addresses, earnings and social security numbers.
“It’s happening right now everywhere, people have to be more careful,” said Paul Jordanopolous of New Canaan.
A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Consumer Protection said companies hit by hackers should notify the Officer of the Attorney General.
Both local and federal authorities have been notified of the situation, McCusker said.
Joshua Brown of Stamford told NBC Connecticut a cyberattack this past September on health insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield exposed his private information.
“It’s like a cyberwar,” Brown said, “everybody is stealing people’s information. These people do it as a job now, so it’s scary.”
