Law enforcement officials and city attorneys continued efforts to try to understand the full scope of a data breach that occurred last month involving the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.
Ivor Pine, a spokesperson for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, confirmed on Wednesday, April 8, there was an unauthorized breach to the office’s third-party system on March 20.
The digital program is used by city attorneys to transfer discovery to opposing counsel and litigants.
“After learning of the incident, our office took immediate steps to secure the tool and investigate what information was accessed,” he said in a statement. “We reported the incident to law enforcement. … Our office has been working with city departments, including the City’s Information Technology Agency … to review the data involved,” Pine said.
The City Attorney’s Office said no other city applications or systems were impacted.
“Our investigation is continuing to determine what information was present in the tool and we will take appropriate action to notify any affected parties based on the results of this review,” Pine said.
On Tuesday night, April 7, the Los Angeles Police Department issued a statement saying that officials were made aware of the breach, in which unauthorized individuals gained access to a digital-storage system that contained discovery documents from previously adjudicated or settled LAPD civil litigation cases, as well as personnel files and documents from Internal Affairs investigations.
“We take this incident very seriously and are working with the L.A. City Attorney’s Office to gain access to this impacted file to understand the full scope of the data breach,” the LAPD said.