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LDS Church discloses March computer breach affecting member data

By Genelle Pugmire - Daily Herald | Oct 17, 2022

Photo supplied, Intellectual Reserve

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, reported a breach of membership data that occurred in March.

On Thursday, after several months of church and government investigation, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints revealed it had been involved in an extensive data breach in March.

A church statement noted that, “In late March 2022, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints detected unauthorized activity in certain computer systems that affected personal data of some Church members, employees, contractors, and friends. The affected data did not include donation history or any banking information associated with online donations.”

Since that time, the church has been working with U.S. federal law enforcement authorities and third-party cybersecurity experts to establish the origin, nature and scope of the incident and to mitigate possible impacts, according to the church statement.

“Law enforcement authorities believe the risk that the information will be used to harm individuals is low and our monitoring efforts have not identified any attempts of harmful use,” the statement said.

“At the request of these law enforcement authorities, we have not shared information about the incident as they have conducted their investigation until October 12, 2022,” it continued.

In a list of frequently asked questions, the church answered some of the more pressing issues, reporting that:

  • Federal law enforcement authorities suspect the intrusion was part of a pattern of state-sponsored cyberattacks aimed at organizations and governments around the world that are not intended to cause harm to individuals.
  • The breached systems contain personal data, including basic contact information, of chruch members. If previously provided to the church, the data accessed may include members’ username, membership record number, full name, gender, email address, birthdate, mailing address, phone number and preferred language.
  • The personal data involved was the result of the creation of an online church account or the result of employment with the church.

“We take protecting the personal data entrusted to us seriously and are taking every action to keep your information safe,” the church statement said.

The church is notifying those who may have been impacted.

Anyone who would like more information or to know if their information was breached can call 833-559-0435 (English toll-free number) or 833-559-0612 (Spanish toll-free number).

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