The Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) has closed down their Professional Online Licensing and Regulatory Information System (POLARIS) as a precaution against suspicious activity.
The system stores information regarding license holders and applicant. The information varies but may include Social Security numbers, dates of birth, drivers licence numbers and a range of other personally identifying information (PII).
In a statement posted to its website, the DOL announced the detection of suspect activity involving professional and occupational license data during the week commencing January 24 2022. The decision was taken to shut down POLARIS as a precaution while the activity was investigated.
The department announced that the Washington Office of Cybersecurity is working towards the safe recovery of the system and investigating the possibility of a data breach.
“At this time, we have no indication that any other DOL data was affected, such as driver and vehicle licensing information. All other DOL systems are operating normally,” stated the DOL.
