NEWTON — Catawba County is mailing letters that tell people their Social Security numbers, medical information, health insurance details and government ID numbers may have been exposed when someone got into county computer systems in September 2025.
The letters are going out about a year after the break-in. One dated Sept. 15, 2026, was received by a Conover resident, who shared it with Catawba First News. It says the county’s investigation found the incident happened between Sept. 12 and Sept. 19, 2025. The county’s website says it identified the unauthorized activity in its network on or about Sept. 19, 2025.
The county has not said publicly how many people are receiving letters.
What may have been exposed
According to the letter, the information involved “may have included, but was not limited to,” the recipient’s name along with:
- Social Security number
- date of birth
- driver’s license or state ID number, and other government ID numbers
- health insurance policy number
- clinical, diagnosis and treatment information, including medical codes for treatment, procedures and diagnoses
A notice on the county’s website says the information involved “var[ies] by individual.” Besides names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, medical information and health insurance information, the website notice also lists financial account information.
Both the letter and the website say the county has no evidence that anyone’s information has been misused. The website says that as of its writing, the county “has not received any reports from individuals of misuse, identity theft or fraud related to the incident.”
What the county says happened
The county says that when it discovered what its website calls “the attack,” it activated its incident response procedures, secured its network and brought in “nationally recognized third-party cybersecurity experts.” It says emergency response and other critical public safety services kept running throughout the incident.
The letter says that after the investigation, the county carried out “a comprehensive and time-intensive review of the affected files” to figure out what information was in them and whom it belonged to, then worked to find contact information for those people. The county says it has reviewed its policies and procedures and put in additional security measures.
The letters were mailed through Cyberscout, a breach-notification and identity-protection company. They carry a return address of P.O. Box 3826 in Suwanee, Georgia.
Catawba First News has seen only the first page of the letter; according to the county’s website, the letters also offer complimentary credit monitoring and a toll-free number for questions.
A federal filing
Federal health privacy law requires breaches of protected health information to be reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its Office for Civil Rights keeps a public list of those that affect 500 or more people. On that list, “County of Catawba,” registered as a health plan, reported a hacking/IT incident involving a network server on Nov. 19, 2025. The entry lists 500 people affected and is among the cases the office says are currently under investigation.
The federal entry does not describe the incident. The county has not said whether the federal entry covers the same September 2025 break-in, whether the 500 figure will be updated, or which department’s data was involved.
Is the letter real?
The county has posted details of the notice on a “Cyber Event Info” page linked at the top of its homepage, catawbacountync.gov/cyber-event-info. The page gives the county’s dedicated toll-free line, 866-898-7846, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern.
If you get a call, email or text about the incident, check it against the county’s page before you give out any information.
The county has not put out a news release about the incident. Public recaps of Board of Commissioners meetings from September 2025 through this week do not mention it.
What you can do
These steps are free, and they make sense for anyone who gets a letter:
- Freeze your credit with all three bureaus. A freeze stops new credit from being opened in your name, and placing or lifting one costs nothing. Equifax: 1-800-349-9960, equifax.com. Experian: 1-888-397-3742, experian.com/help. TransUnion: 1-888-909-8872, transunion.com/credit-help. You can also freeze a child’s credit.
- Or place a fraud alert. A fraud alert tells lenders to verify your identity before opening an account. It lasts one year, and you only need to contact one bureau, which must tell the other two.
- Check your credit reports for accounts you don’t recognize at AnnualCreditReport.com or 1-877-322-8228.
- Read your health insurance statements. Look at explanation-of-benefits notices from your insurer, Medicaid or Medicare for doctor visits, prescriptions or equipment you never received, and call the insurer about anything you don’t recognize. This matters because medical and insurance details were involved.
- Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN. The six-digit number blocks anyone else from filing a tax return with your Social Security number. The county recommends it. Get one at irs.gov/ippin.
- Sign up for the credit monitoring offered in your letter before its deadline.
- Report identity theft at IdentityTheft.gov or 1-877-438-4338, and to the N.C. Department of Justice at 1-877-566-7226 (ncdoj.gov).
Source note
As of publication, these are the sources for this story:
- Catawba County, “Notice of Data Incident” letter dated Sept. 15, 2026, mailed via Cyberscout (P.O. Box 3826, Suwanee, Ga.). Page 1 was received by a Conover resident and shared with Catawba First News. The recipient’s name and address are withheld.
- Catawba County, “Catawba County Issues Notice of Data Security Incident,” Cyber Event Info page, accessed Sept. 26, 2026: catawbacountync.gov/cyber-event-info. The page is undated. The homepage link to it does not appear in an Internet Archive capture of the county homepage from Aug. 31, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, Breach Portal, “Cases Currently Under Investigation,” entry for “County of Catawba,” NC, submitted Nov. 19, 2025, accessed Sept. 26, 2026: ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach.
- Catawba County news releases and Board of Commissioners meeting recaps, September 2025 through Sept. 22, 2026: catawbacountync.gov/news.
- Consumer steps: Federal Trade Commission, IdentityTheft.gov and consumer.ftc.gov; IRS, Get an Identity Protection PIN; credit bureau phone numbers as listed on the county’s notice page.
- No North Carolina Department of Justice breach report was available to check; the department does not publish individual breach notices online.
Cover: A Catawba County data-incident notice mailed in September 2026. Recipient details redacted by Catawba First News.
