In early October, the South Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR) became aware of a security breach in which 3.6 million Social Security numbers and 387,000 credit and debit card numbers were exposed. This breach affected both individuals and businesses that have filed tax returns in South Carolina since 1998.

Most, but not all, of the credit and debit card numbers were encrypted. This may slow down the possible identity theft or fraud, but may not eliminate all risk. The state will provide affected taxpayers with a year of credit monitoring and identity theft protection service through Experian.

To determine if your business or personal information was affected, please contact the South Carolina DOR at 1-866-578-5422 or go to www.protectmyid.com/scdor (enter code SCDOR123). For further information, you can also visit www.sctax.org.