Indiana county urges password changes after online breach

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - A southern Indiana county's treasurer is warning that a breach of an online portal that allows people to access their property tax bills may have allowed hackers to view users' personal information.

Monroe County Treasurer Jessica McClellan said the online intruder did not view any banking or credit card information because a separate company processes that information on behalf of the county.

But McClellan said there's the possibility the intruder may have seen local residents' passwords and she's recommending that the portal's users change them, especially if their password is used in combination with other private information.

Master's Touch, LLC provides the online web portal, eNoticesOnline.com, through the county's website to allow taxpayers to view their property tax statement and assessments.

McClellan said the county was alerted on Nov. 1 that Master's Touch, LLC had fallen victim to a malware attack on Oct. 23, The Herald-Times reported.

The company hired a computer forensic company to determine what the intruder had access to and while it found that no unauthorized data files were removed, the company was unsure if the files had been viewed, she said.

The personal information that may have been accessed includes taxpayers' online username and passwords used to access the web portal, McClellan said.

She said Master's Touch LLC sent out letters in the mail to customers last week explaining the situation. McClellan said there are about 1,930 subscribers to the online web portal in Monroe County.