HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Hawai’i Department of Health announced Thursday, March 9 that their security system has been breached.

The DOH said they were notified of the security breach on Jan. 23.

Officials said that it was an external medical certifier that let the DOH know that the account had been compromised and that the information has been sold on the dark web.

The breach impacts those with deceased loved one. The DOH said that those who are impacted by this breach will be receiving a letter in the mail, soon.

“These death records do include the deceased information such as their name, address, date of birth, SSN. So, for that reason, we are encouraging people to remain vigilant regarding any matters regarding estate planning, insurance, social security benefits and such,” said Shane Hamamoto, Hawaii Department of Health spokesperson.

Once the breached account was discovered, DOH officials said they immediately shut down the account and began an investigation.

This allowed the DOH to discover that the compromised account was that of a medical certifier that is employed by a local hospital. He’d left the job in June 2021.

Officials said the account has been deactivated, but someone did use it to access the system.

The DOH said that approximately 3,400 death records from 1998 to 2023 may have been viewed but that no death certificates were accessed or generated.

However, the DOH is advising anyone who may be impacted by this security breach to use an abundance of caution and to remain vigilant with personal information.