CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston Fire Department says someone hacked into their email system earlier this year for the purpose of sending spam emails but the fire department is taking the additional step to notify residents who have received treatment through the department’s ambulance service that there’s an outside chance their personal health information was compromised.
The fire department has sent a letter to all of those patients explaining what happened, how it was fixed and what they can do if they are concerned about a possible compromise.
“On February 21, 2025, CFD became aware of spam emails originating from an EMS employee’s email account. We promptly took steps to secure our email systems and engaged leading outside cybersecurity experts to assist with our investigation. These experts confirmed that an employee’s email account was accessed beginning on February 18, 2025,” the letter said. “While we believe that this email account was logged into only to issue spam emails, we are notifying you of this event out of an abundance of caution.”
The fire department has arranged a complimentary credit monitoring for those who may be impacted by the incident.
The fire department said it has increased security in its email system.