Miami Gardens notifies residents of data breach that exposed SSNs, financial accounts, health insurance

The city of Miami Gardens, Florida this week notified an undisclosed number of people about a June 2024 data breach that compromised 80 GB of personal information including names, Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, health insurance info, and dates of birth.

Ransomware group Meow claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after it occurred and demanded $500,000 in ransom. It claims it stole tax documents, police employee data, insurance records, budgets, and more.

City officials have not verified Meow’s claim. We do not yet know whether Miami Gardens paid a ransom, how many people are affected, or how attackers breached the city’s network. Comparitech contacted city officials for comment and will update this article if they respond.

“Through the investigation, we determined that the unauthorized party had access to our computer systems on June 7, 2024, and may have acquired copies of some of our computer files during this period,” the notice (PDF) states.

The city is offering eligible victims 24 months of free credit monitoring via Experian.

Who is Meow?

First identified in 2022, Meow’s ransomware builds upon Conti, an older strain. Evidence suggests Meow steals data and holds it for ransom, but it might not encrypt files. Data theft and extortion without encryption is an increasingly popular trend for attackers.

We tracked three confirmed ransomware attacks claimed by Meow so far in 2024, affecting 99,258 records and demanding an average ransom of $202,333 (no confirmation on if those were paid).

Meow claimed just four confirmed attacks in 2023.

Meow has claimed another 66 unconfirmed attacks so far this year, 33 of which took place in August. The average ransom demand for these unconfirmed atacks is $17,621.

Ransomware attacks on US government

In addition to data theft, ransomware attacks on local government can disrupt day-to-day city operations like tax payments, billing, email and phone systems, court proceedings, permitting, welfare programs, and more. Cities are forced to pay a ransom to restore their systems and/or prevent stolen data from being sold to third parties or published online.

Comparitech researchers recorded 60 attacks on US government entities so far in 2024, affecting more than 130,000 records. In the whole of 2023, we logged 78 attacks affecting 700,000 records.

The average ransom demanded from US government agencies in 2024 is $748,669. Other attacks recently targeted Killeen, TX; Flint, Michigan; and Hollywood Burbank Airport.

About Miami Gardens, FL

Located 16 miles north of downtown Miami, Miami Gardens, Florida has a population of 105,457 as of 2020, and is the largest African American-majority city in the state.