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Municipal Exfil Remediated

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector
Breach Analysis

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's office disclosed a data exposure in October 2024 affecting approximately 1.2 million property tax and vehicle registration records containing taxpayer PII.

Incident Date
2024-10-03
Records Exposed
1,200,000
Attack Type
Exfil
Threat Actor
Unconfirmed

How they got in

Database credential compromise via a contractor with overly broad read access. Large-scale exfiltration of property tax and vehicle registration records containing names, addresses, and identification numbers.

Sentinel / Fortress / Command coverage

Sentinel Database activity monitoring: bulk export query from contractor account triggers immediate alert and session suspension
Fortress Contractor access scoping: read access restricted to specific county and record type relevant to contractor work; no access to full registry
Command Annual access review: contractor accounts audited for over-privilege; excess access removed before it can be exploited

Sentinel ($89/ep/mo) — 24/7 SOC + SIEM. Fortress ($109/ep/mo) — Sentinel + EDR management + vulnerability management. Command ($129/ep/mo) — Fortress + vCISO + compliance mapping + IR plan. See full tier comparison →

Regulatory exposure

Regime Standard / Citation Gap Identified
TDPA Tex. B&C Code §521.052 Reasonable procedures to protect sensitive PII — contractor access over-provisioned without audit logging
TDPA Tex. B&C Code §521.053 1.2M Harris County taxpayer notifications required within 60 days

5-point hardening list

CoreRecon cites verifiable public sources only. No speculation on unverified attribution is published. Threat actor attribution appears only where publicly confirmed by law enforcement or the organization.

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