Lawyers in Greenville still wonder, though, if there’s anyone in the state they can blame.
In her third press conference Tuesday, Haley stressed that fingers should not be pointed at her own administration because the hacker used extremely creative and sophisticated measures to get into the system. She said it was something they couldn’t have prevented.
The State Law Enforcement Division is working with the Secret Service to find who, how, and why the Department of Revenue was hacked.
Upstate lawyer, Grant Varner, said Greenville’s legal community is brimming with talk about how taxpayers can go after the state, but so far he hasn’t found any real avenues by which to sue.
“Realistically, if the state merely made what I would call, an oopsie, just a minor mistake. [If] it was not something purposely done or just an egregious error, then the state by law will have immunity for this action,” Varner said.
The state has accepted the cost of suiting every taxpayer, and former taxpayer, with credit monitoring for a year. Haley said the state worked out a deal with Experian Monday night that will cap its cost at $12 million.
Haley said Experian is covering credit monitoring for a year, plus fraud resolution for life. That means if an identity is stolen after the first year, South Carolina will foot that insurance bill.
Haley said the 5,000 credit cards that were compromised from their old system were actually expired ones. She said no current credit card information was hacked.
The SC Department of Revenue says anyone who has filed a tax return since 1998 should visit protectmyid.com/scdor and enter code SCDOR123 or call 1-866-578-5422 to see if they are affected.
Copyright 2012 FOX Carolina (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
Report by Dana Wachter, Fox Carolina