Been to Missouri Botanical Garden? There’s Been a Security Breach

If you've been to Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis this year, you need to know about a security breach where some visitor information appears to have been stolen.

I saw this urgent article from First Alert 4 in St. Louis sharing the news that the Missouri Botanical Garden suffered a security breach earlier this year. Someone was able to access their system and steal personal information from numerous visitors such as "driver’s license number, passport number, medical information, health insurance information and Social Security number" according to the report.

How do you know if your personal information was compromised by the Missouri Botanical Garden security breach?

The report says that the Missouri Botanical Garden is reaching out to those they believe were affected and offering them 12 months of free credit monitoring.

Excuse me as I have a bit of a rant to unleash. I mean no offense to Missouri Botanical Garden as I'm sure they're only doing what the professional teams investigating them are telling them to do. However, as a computer tech myself, I absolutely hate the fact that user information was compromised back in March and it took 6 months before the breach was announced. I know there is a period of time while the techs had to resecure the system without publicity, but I would be angry if I only found out 6 months later that my information might be in unsavory hands.

If you visited Missouri Botanical Garden prior to March 7 (or even after), I would keep an eagle eye on my bank account and credit cards no matter if I was contacted about my information being compromised. I would also not hesitate to contact Missouri Botanical Garden directly if you have concerns.