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YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee affected by data security breach

Posted at 4:01 PM, Aug 21, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-21 17:01:54-04

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A data security breach has been reported by the data service provider used by YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee.

The nonprofit dedicated to women's rights announced the incident Friday. YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee uses data service provider Blackbaud as its vendor for software and file hosting and backup.

Blackbaud recently notified YWCA of a cybersecurity attack against its systems that happened in May. The service provider says it discovered the attack and resolved the issue quickly, but that it affected hundreds of their nonprofit clients.

During the attack, a hacker managed to get a hold of files stored by Blackbaud for clients such as YWCA. After learning of the attack, the cybersecurity team at Blackbaud - with the help of law enforcement and independent forensics experts - prevented the attack blocking out their system access before forcing the hacker out of their system.

Before Blackbaud managed to do this, the hacker removed a copy of a YWCA backup file that YWCA believes had the personal information of givers, including name, address, phone number, email address, birthday, employer and giving history. YWCA says credit card and bank account information was encrypted and not accessed by the hacker.

Based on information the YWCA has, with assurances from Blackbaud, it is believed the risk is low that any data that was received will be misused. The YWCA adds, though, that their givers should remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity or suspected identity theft to both them and proper law enforcement.

Further information on the security breach can be found on Blackbaud's website.