California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent an apology letter to concealed carry permit applicants on Friday after their private information was leaked from a proprietary database.
Thousands of concealed carry permit applicants in the state, including 244 judges and 420 reserve officers, had their names, home addresses, dates of birth, and license plate numbers leaked in a data breach of the California Department of Justice’s (DOJ) gun database. To combat identity theft associated with the leak, the California DOJ is establishing a call center and offering a year of free credit monitoring services.
“We sincerely regret the unacceptable disclosure of your personal data and I offer my sincerest apology on behalf of the entire Department of Justice,” Bonta wrote in the letter, obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller. Bonta added that his office was not aware of any cases of identity theft arising from the leaked information, but that it was continuing to monitor the situation.
“We are also offering complimentary access to credit monitoring services through IDX, which includes: 12 months of triple-bureau credit monitoring, CyberScan dark web monitoring, a $1,000,000 insurance reimbursement policy, an fully managed ID theft recovery services,” he continued. (RELATED: Gov. Phil Murphy’s Latest 2A Crackdown Creates Database For All Ammo Sold In New Jersey)
NRA says California DOJ put ‘vulnerable’ gun owners ‘at risk’ with data leak, plans legal action https://t.co/q1Cg5M6Adv
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 30, 2022
Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, told the Daily Caller that the move from the attorney general was “too little too late.”
“His offer of free credit counseling is woefully inadequate and doesn’t address the magnitude of the screw-up or the intensity of the fear that everyone who has been doxxed by the DOJ now feels,” Michel said.
Michel voiced similar concerns about the attorney general’s response to the data leak earlier in the month.
“There are people out there who are scared,” Michel said on the Dana Loesch Show. “There’s going to be blood on the attorney general’s hands over this. Somebody’s going to get hurt or killed.”
The June 28 DOJ leak compromised the private information of thousands of permit registrants between 2011 and 2021. Bonta’s office also expressed concern that data from five other gun registries, the Assault Weapon, Dealer Record of Sale, Firearm Certification System, and Gun Violence Restraining Order registries, could have been compromised.
Bo Hansen, a Californian CCW permittee affected by the breach, called the letter “shameful.”
Read the letter here:
Data Breach Letter by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd
“It’s obvious Bonta’s office is hiding the details of what occurred because it provides no explanation whatsoever as to how a confidential database ended up being directly linked to the DOJ’s public website,” Hansen told the Daily Caller.
“This letter points toward further evidence that the leak was deliberate and not accidental. No person or organization was specifically identified as being responsible and they’ve had weeks to come up with a better explanation than simply ‘information was disclosed.'”
A press release issued from the attorney general’s office a day after the leak promised an investigation into the incident.
The California Attorney General’s office told the Daily Caller that an investigation is underway, and that it would continue to update the public as needed.
“On July 6, Attorney General Bonta secured outside counsel Morrison & Foerster LLP to conduct an independent review of the incident,” the California Attorney General’s office told the Daily Caller. “The team, composed of former state and federal prosecutors, will investigate how this exposure occurred; supervise an outside forensic cyber expert to examine the data and what happened from a digital perspective; review DOJ policies and practices; and offer recommendations on mitigation, remedial steps, and other appropriate measures.”
The attorney general said the DOJ would continue to add updated information on the investigation to a website.