Nullivo

Data breaches → Washington State Food Worker Card

Was your data in the Washington State Food Worker Card breach?

2022 · foodworkercard.wa.gov · ~1,594,305 accounts exposedCritical severity · 10/10

Washington State Food Worker Card (foodworkercard.wa.gov) suffered a data breach in 2022 that exposed around 1,594,305 accounts. If you had an account, some of your personal data may be circulating in leaked databases. The fastest way to know is to check your own email — free, in about 30 seconds, no password required.

What happened

In June 2023, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department announced a data breach of their Washington State Food Worker Card online training system. The breach was published to a popular hacking forum the year before and dated back to a 2018 database backup. Included in the data were 1.6M unique email addresses along with names, post codes, dates of birth and approximately 9.5k driver's licence numbers.

Breach details sourced from Have I Been Pwned, the industry-standard breach database. Risk analysis by Nullivo.

What was exposed, and why it matters

Not all breaches carry the same risk — what matters is which fields leaked. Here is what the Washington State Food Worker Card breach exposed and what each item actually enables:

Government identifiers

The strongest identity-theft material there is — enough to open credit accounts or file fraudulent claims in your name.

Dates of birth

Date of birth is a permanent identifier used to verify identity by phone. Combined with a name and address it is often enough to impersonate you.

Location data

Reveals where you live, work or travel, which supports both targeted scams and physical-safety risks.

Names and usernames

Links this leak to your other accounts — a reused username lets anyone build a profile of you across platforms.

Email addresses

Puts you on spam and phishing lists, and confirms to attackers that you hold an account with this service — which makes impersonation emails more believable.

What to do if you were affected

These steps are ordered for this specific breach — the most urgent action given what leaked comes first.

  1. Government identifiers: Consider a credit freeze or fraud alert with the credit reference agencies, and watch for accounts you did not open.
  2. Dates of birth: Never confirm your date of birth to an inbound caller — hang up and dial the organisation back on a published number.
  3. Location data: Review location sharing on the accounts you still hold with this service.
  4. Names and usernames: Search your usual username to see what else it exposes, and use distinct handles for sensitive accounts.
  5. Email addresses: Treat any message referencing this service with suspicion, and never act on links in unexpected emails.
  6. Check whether your own email appears in this breach — run a free scan to confirm before you spend time on the steps above.

How urgent is this now?

This data has been circulating for around 4 years, which means it has been copied, combined with other leaks and indexed by search tools many times over.

Remember: a breach can't be "un-leaked" — once a database is out, it exists in countless copies. The goal is to make the leaked data useless: change what can be changed, lock down what can't, and remove what has been republished.

Check if your email was exposed.Nullivo's free scan checks your own verified email against known breaches — including Washington State Food Worker Card — in 30 seconds. No password, no signup, and we only ever scan your own email. Run your free scan →

Frequently asked questions

What data was exposed in the Washington State Food Worker Card breach?

The Washington State Food Worker Card breach exposed government identifiers, dates of birth, location data, names and usernames, email addresses. The strongest identity-theft material there is — enough to open credit accounts or file fraudulent claims in your name.

How many people were affected by the Washington State Food Worker Card breach?

Around 1,594,305 accounts were exposed, making it a large breach.

What should I do if I had a Washington State Food Worker Card account?

Consider a credit freeze or fraud alert with the credit reference agencies, and watch for accounts you did not open. You can check whether your own email appears in this breach with a free Nullivo scan — no password required.

Breaches that exposed similar data

If the Washington State Food Worker Card breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.

See all breaches we cover →