Islip offering 1 year free credit monitoring for residents affected by cyber incident

The Town of Islip is offering one year of free credit monitoring to residents who were impacted by a cyber intrusion of town systems more than a year ago.

In a mass email sent out Tuesday, the town said the information to access the service is contained in a letter sent to those affected by the cyber incident in November 2022. The monitoring is covered by the town's cyber insurance policy, according to a town spokeswoman. The town sent around 6,500 letters within the last week.

The town's security software detected "unusual activity" on some computer systems in November 2022 and alerted the IT department that something was amiss, Newsday has previously reported. IT workers shut down the computer system to check each of the town's more than 900 computers. The system was back online within a week, Newsday reported.

"While it appears that some information was viewed it further appears that no information was actually secured by the attackers," town officials said in Tuesday's email. "Letters were sent out of an abundance of caution as the Town strives to comply with the cyber protection protocols of every state where a physical address may have been viewed. But, again, personal identifiable information was not believed to be removed from the Town's IT infrastructure."

Town officials said steps have been taken to avoid future cyber incidents, and the investigation into the 2022 intrusion is still ongoing.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.