Nevada State Marijuana portal was hit by a cyber attack revealing information of those holding medical marijuana licenses. The exposed data includes social security numbers, date of births and their respective residential addresses.
Nevada State’s Public and Behavioral health public division’s spokesperson- Martha Framsted said in a statement yesterday, that security authorities are investigating the attack which took place on the database of Medical Marijuana Program and a report can be expected by early next week.
Ms. Framsted added that the information related to Patients was safe and secure. However, the entire portal has been taken down.
The Nevada State Medical Marijuana Program learned about the data leak on December 28th this week (Wednesday) and decided to immediately contact the law enforcement agencies.
The leaked info about those possessing Medical marijuana agent cards could prove critical for drug dealers operating along the borders of US.
However, Law Enforcement agencies have come up with a Prima Facie in which it was revealed that the information was encrypted and so could prove useless to the hackers.
All those Medical Marijuana agents who feel that their information could have compromised can contact Equifax (800) 525-6285, Experian (888) 397-3742 or TransUnion (800) 680-7289 for more details.
Note- The Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH) is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services. It is associated with the Executive branch of the State of Nevada.
Earlier, the said health department was comprised of Health Division and Division of Mental Health and developmental Services. But from July 2013, the two divisions merged to form DPHB.
Cyber Attacks on government agencies has now become a common phenomenon these days as most of these attacks are being launched by State run Actors.
However, a cyber attack on a drug portal used for medical research is pointing fingers at some of the big drug dealers operating in the United States from Mexico.
