Zach Urness

Statesman Journal

Oregon officials say they don’t think personal information has been compromised by a hacking operation that impacted hunting and fishing license databases in four states.

Online sales of licenses have been suspended in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Kentucky following claims from an individual that they obtained information such as Social Security numbers, phone numbers and driver’s license information.

Rick Hargrave, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the state’s network security team “didn’t find any evidence that personal data was taken or viewed.”

“We’re continuing to be vigilant and continuing to check on the situation, which is why we’re keeping the online sales of licenses down until further notice,” he said.

The situation started Tuesday, when a hacker emailed a message to ODFW saying they had breached the personal information of the state website.

After not finding any evidence of a breach, ODFW put the system back on line Wednesday, but took it down again Thursday as precaution, according to the Office of the State CIO.

The hacker, who calls himself “Mr. High,” claimed to have obtained “over six million pieces of personal information,” according to the website databreaches.net.

The hacker claimed to have obtained the name, date of birth, address and drivers license numbers of 1.1 million Oregonians, according to the site.

Hargrave said names and addresses are information that could be obtained by anyone. However, he disputed that the hacker accessed personal driver’s license information or date of birth.

“(They) may have been able to view information that is available anyway — public information,” Hargrave said. “But we don’t believe he could view information like a Social Security number or driver’s license number.”

In Washington and Idaho, the hacker claimed to have other information such as the last four digits of Social Security numbers, phone numbers and a person’s physical characteristics. The website LiveOutdoors.com first reported information about the hacker's claims.

All four states are conducting ongoing investigations into the extent of the breach.

In the meantime, Hargrave said, Oregonians can still purchase licenses at retailers — such as Fred Meyer or Bi-Mart — or at Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department offices. In Washington, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is allowing anglers to fish without a license while the agency’s fishing and hunting license sales system is down.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for eight years. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Zach Urness or @ZachsORoutdoors on Twitter.