"Washington Warns of POLARIS Breach"
After detecting suspicious activity, the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) has shuttered its Professional Online Licensing and Regulatory Information System (POLARIS). POLARIS stores information about license holders and applicants. The type of information varies for different licenses and may include Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver license numbers, and other personally identifying information (PII). The DOL stated that it became aware of unusual activity involving professional and occupational license data on January 24, 2022. The department said the Washington Office of Cybersecurity was assisting in the safe recovery of the system and in the investigation to determine whether a data breach had occurred. The DOL stated that at this time, they have no indication that any other DOL data was affected, such as driver and vehicle licensing information.