California publishes private information of every concealed carry permit holder

The names, addresses, and license types of every Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) permit holder in California were inadvertently released as part of a data breach suffered by the state Department of Justice, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has reported.

Officials have confirmed that the California State Sheriff’s Association told the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office about the data breach, which came after the state published the 2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal on Monday. When the notification was made, state officials described it as improving “transparency and information sharing for firearms-related data,” KNZR reports.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the information included the CCW holders’ name, age, address, Criminal Identification Index (CII) number and license type (Standard, Judicial, Reserve and Custodial). Every CCW holder in the state was on the list.

Fresno County officials responded by saying that the state disabled access to the website after the breach, however many are concerned that the information may have been copied and could still be in circulation on social media and other parts of the internet. It is unknown how long the information was available to the general public.

Officials add that the State Attorney General’s Office is working to asertain the scale of the breach and it plans to directly notify the CCW holders of the situation.

The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has asked that anyone aware that their identity has been compromised because of the leak file an online report.

California’s DOJ stated that they will investigate any leak of personal information connected to the DOJ Firearms Dashboard. “Any unauthorized release of personal information is unacceptable,” they said.