One of the most important documents for families after a loved one has died is now one of the most transported documents in the state.
Death certificates are now being physically driven to health departments for processing.
The News4JAX I-TEAM told you Thursday that the Florida Department of Health online database was hacked by ransom thieves.
They gave the state until Friday to pay an unknown ransom, however, it’s illegal for any government agency to pay ransom.
The Florida Department of Health issues birth certificates, death certificates and other health documentation.
“To have everything completed a burial permit is accompanied with the death certificate,” Reginald McKinney, funeral director of McKinney Family Funeral Home, said.
McKinney has been overseeing the funeral home business since 2009. He told News4JAX before the hack that all information regarding a person’s death was submitted online.
Funeral directors now have resorted to manually completing a death certificate by hand.
“And the extra step that we’re having to take now is, in order to get this certificate completed and filed, we have to drive it to the health department and physically hand them the tangible paper in order for them to actually file the death certificate. Before [the cyberattack], it was electronically done,” McKinney said.
Death certificates are needed for multiple purposes like probating estates, insurance claims, social security, Veterans benefits, or obtaining retirement benefits.
McKinney said death certificates are also essential for finalizing a loved one’s final resting place.
“For instance, when we take a person to the cemetery, we have to have a burial permit, not necessarily the death certificate completed but we would have had to contact the signing physician for that physician to agree that he will sign the death certificate before that person can be buried in a cemetery or actually be cremated,” he said.
Floridians may have to also wait longer to get official certificates of birth.
“And that’s where the concern is, with a breach like this, how far can they go with all of that data they’ve stolen?” Scott Schober, CEO of Berkeley Varitronics, said.
Schober said hackers could have gained access to the state system, through something as simple as a phishing email, with devastating consequences for those who haven’t taken steps to protect their credit information.
“Unfortunately, those that don’t have their credit frozen, those that aren’t checking their statements regularly, because some of it likely has social security numbers and they believe there could be some billing information,” he said.
It is illegal in the state of Florida for government agencies to pay the ransom to get their data restored, it’s something cyber security expert Scott Schober said he agrees with to hopefully discourage these kinds of cyberattacks.