The City of Foster City filed a data breach notification with the California Attorney General’s office, listing breach dates of February 28, 2026 and March 25, 2026, with the report submitted on July 13, 2026. Unfortunately, the official notification document appears to be a scanned image, and no machine-readable text could be extracted from it. That means we cannot tell you from this filing exactly what happened, how the breach occurred, or whether a third-party vendor was involved. We are noting this plainly rather than guessing, and we will update this article if a readable version of the notice becomes available.
Because the underlying document isn’t readable, we also don’t know exactly who is affected — whether it’s residents, city employees, or another group tied to city services. If you received a letter directly from the City of Foster City about this incident, that letter is your most reliable source of specifics, including what happened to your information and what your city says you should do next.
What information was exposed?
- The specific data types involved in this breach were not disclosed in the readable portion of the filing.
- California law generally requires notification when personal information such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial account details, or medical information is involved, so it’s reasonable to treat this notice seriously even without confirmed specifics.
- Check any letter you received directly from the City of Foster City, as it should list the exact categories of information affecting you.
No information about free credit monitoring or identity protection services being offered by the city was available in the readable portion of this filing. If such an offer exists, it would typically be described in the letter sent directly to affected individuals.
What should you do now?
- Read any letter from the City of Foster City carefully — it should confirm what data was involved and what, if anything, the city is offering.
- Monitor your bank and credit card statements for unfamiliar charges, especially if you have ever provided financial information to city services.
- Place a fraud alert or credit freeze with the major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) if you have any reason to believe sensitive identifiers like a Social Security number or driver’s license number may have been involved.
- Watch for phishing emails, texts, or calls that reference the City of Foster City or this incident, since scammers sometimes use breach news to trick people into giving up more information.
- Consider signing up for a service like Aura or LifeLock, which can alert you if your information appears elsewhere, giving you an extra layer of protection while details of this incident remain unclear.
- Keep any notification letter and related correspondence in case you need to reference it later or dispute fraudulent activity.