There’s still time to get help with UCR data breach

If you were affected by the Unified Carrier Registration data breach earlier this year and you missed the Nov. 16 deadline to take action and protect your identity, there is still time.

Tamara Young with OOIDA’s Permits and Licensing Department, says the company is still taking calls through the first couple of weeks of December.

UCR has hired a firm to help provide identity protection services to anyone affected by the breach, which includes about 12,000 organizations and 11,000 sole proprietors.

Businesses organized as a limited-liability corporation initially had until Saturday, Nov. 16, to contact UCR to sign up for identity theft protection for an individual who had their tax identification or Social Security number exposed during a data breach in March.

Companies organized as a sole proprietorship have until Jan. 16 to contact UCR for assistance with the breach.

About 23,000 carriers may have provided a Social Security number as a tax ID. About 12,000 organizations and 11,000 sole proprietors were potentially affected.

Young says the UCR board of directors has hired cyber security firm Kroll Cyber Security LLC to help provide identity protection services to anyone affected by the breach. UCR has sent letters to those who were affected.

“At this point, just make sure you keep an eye on your identity, your credit,” Young said in an interview with Land Line Now. “If you see you’re affected by this in any way, please make sure to contact the UCR.”

In October, the agency reported a vulnerability in its system that from March 1 through March 28 caused a UCR registrant’s tax ID number to display in the status bar of the web browser of the receipt created when registering in the system.

UCR says it submitted a list of about 30,000 at-risk registrants to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for further assistance. UCR requested the agency run those entries through the Motor Carrier Management Information System database to determine the number of registrants who may have used a Social Security number as a tax ID number.

UCR says it is individually notifying those carriers about the data vulnerability and has mailed offers for identity monitoring services to the affected carriers. The UCR’s statement on the data breach says there is “no further risk of tax ID number exposure” and no indication that a “mass export of tax ID numbers occurred” during the period in question.

Contact UCR by email at privacy@legal.UCR.gov, or contact Kroll Information Assurance by phone at 877-300-6816.

Final fees still not set

UCR fees for 2020 have still not been finalized. That means they are not being collected at this time. Collection will be on hold while FMCSA finalizes a rule regarding a reduction of those fees. Once registration starts, truckers will have three months to pay.

In the meantime, OOIDA is warning drivers to be wary of any e-mails or letters stating that fees are being collected.

News Anchor Terry Scruton contributed to this report.