Cyber Shadows Lurk: Missouri Conservation Department Faces Potential Threat

At a glance

• Suspicious activity flagged: The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) said on Feb. 28, 2025 that its cybersecurity vendor flagged suspicious activity on one of its data servers.
• Investigation under way: MDC’s Incident Response Team and an outside cybersecurity team are analyzing systems and files.
• Scope unknown: The department said it would contact anyone whose data turns out to be affected.

What MDC disclosed

The Missouri Department of Conservation announced on Feb. 28, 2025 that its cybersecurity vendor had flagged suspicious activity on one of its data servers. The scope of the problem was not yet known.

Department leaders said the agency’s Incident Response Team was dispatched to analyze systems, fix problems and work out how far the suspicious activity reached.

The investigation so far

A third-party cybersecurity team is analyzing MDC’s systems and files. The department has not said whether any personal data was taken.

As investigators learn more, including whether individual data was compromised, MDC said it will contact those affected directly.

Why state agencies are targets

State agencies hold records on employees, license holders and the public. That makes them targets. An agency like MDC, which sells hunting and fishing permits to a large share of the state’s residents, keeps names, addresses and contact details for many thousands of people.

Attacks on government bodies have been rising, and many agencies run older systems with small security teams. Early detection by a monitoring vendor, as happened here, is often what keeps an incident small.

What Missourians should watch for

Until MDC finishes its review, people who have dealt with the department, including employees and permit holders, should watch for phishing emails or calls that mention MDC and avoid giving out personal details in reply.

MDC has promised direct notice if data was exposed. The lesson for other agencies is on the detection side, since an outside vendor watching the servers is what caught this.

Frank Jones, CISSP

Frank Jones has loved computers from the age of 13. Frank got his hacking career started when he downloaded a war dialing program that he used to detect dial up modems in his hometown of Chicago. Frank Jones now works as a JAVA coder and cyber security researcher.