Concealed carry permit applications leaked by California’s Attorney General’s Office

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KION-TV)-- The personal information of all Californians who applied for a concealed carry permit since 2011 was leaked this week, authorities said.

When the Department of Justice launched its "2022 Firearms Dashboard Portal," which aimed to "improve transparency and information sharing for firearms-related data," according to a statement released by California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office Tuesday.

It was not supposed to include the personal information of concealed carry weapon permit holders. 

According to Bonta, the leaked information includes names, birth dates, gender, race, driver's license numbers, addresses, and criminal history. Data from several dashboards were also impacted, including Assault Weapon Registry, Handguns Certified for Sale, Dealer Record of Sale, Firearm Certificate Safety, and Gun Violence Restraining Order dashboards.

Bonta said he was "deeply disturbed and angered" by the leak.

"This unauthorized release of personal information is unacceptable and falls far short of my expectations for this department," Bonta said in a statement. "I immediately launched an investigation into how this occurred at the California Department of Justice and will take strong corrective measures where necessary." 

The dashboard and data were pulled offline Tuesday morning by the Department of Justice when they learned of the data breach, but the dashboard and data were available online for a day. 

Bonta's office said the people whose data was exposed will be notified and receive information and resources, including credit monitoring services. The DOJ is also asking anyone who accessed the data while it was available not to share any personal information, which can be a crime if used for an unlawful purpose.

Monterey County Sheriff Steve Bernal said, "It is disturbing to hear of a data breach by the California Department of Justice (DOJ) that has made public the personal information of California’s citizen concealed weapon (CCW) permit holders. It is unclear what the scope of the breach is at this time. I am very concerned about this data breach and the risk it poses to Monterey County and California’s CCW permit holders."

Anyone whose information was leaked is advised to click here for help.