Social EngineeringOtherPhishingEmployee Data InvolvedData ExfiltratedIdentity (basic)Government IDFinancial accountMediumContained

ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC.

bd_8f137e6cc2295ccc · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

Medium

Discovered

Mar 17, 2016

Filed

Apr 7, 2016

To disclose

21 days

Affected

Not disclosed

Confidence

64%

Full breach record for ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC. →4 incidents on file

Essex Property Trust, Inc. disclosed that on March 17, 2016, it was the victim of a phishing attack resulting in the release of employee W-2 tax forms for the 2015 tax year. The affected information included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and financial data such as wages and taxes withheld. The company reported the incident to law enforcement and the IRS, conducted an internal review, and offered 12 months of identity protection services to affected employees.

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California clockDiscovered Mar 17, 2016 → Notified Mar 28, 201611d ✓ CA 60-day OK21 days discovery → filing

Incident timeline

discovery → filing · 21 days

Mar 17, 2016

Begins

Mar 17, 2016

Discovered

Apr 7, 2016

Filed

vs. sector median

5 wks faster

Tracked as a single-filing incident — the only disclosure on record for this event so far.ConfirmedView incident

Name: ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC.
norm: essex property
Domain: essexproperty.com

Name: ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC.
norm: essex property
Domain: essexproperty.com
Industry: Otherllm

Discovered: Mar 17, 2016
Breach occurred: Mar 17, 2016
Undetected for: 0 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: Mar 28, 2016
Affected individuals: Not disclosed
Data types: Identity (basic)Government IDFinancial account
Data elements: Social Security number
Attack vector: Phishing
MITRE ATT&CK: T1566 Phishing
Threat actor: ExternalFinancial
Regulator citations: Reported the incident to law enforcementReported the incident to the IRS
Initial access: phishing_link

During the incident: Reported the incident to law enforcement and the IRS
Conducting an internal review of our systems
Offered 12 months of identity protection services from AllClear ID
Established a hotline at [REDACTED-PHONE]
Changes made: Conducting an internal review of our systems to help further protect against similar attacks in the future
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 21 days(21 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: CA 60-day OK · 11d
Discovery-date grounding: letter-groundedThe discovery date is the detection date narrated in the notification letter — the defensible tier.
Clock breakdown: Statute Window Elapsed Threshold Status
California
Discovered: Mar 17, 2016
→ Notified: Mar 28, 2016
11d 60 days (analyst band, pre-2026 discoveries) CA 60-day OK

Statute	Window	Elapsed	Threshold	Status
California	Discovered: Mar 17, 2016 → Notified: Mar 28, 2016	11d	60 days (analyst band, pre-2026 discoveries)	CA 60-day OK

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Evidence ladder

Leak-site claim

Attacker assertion only. Establishes: claim date, group, alleged victim.

Press / market report

Unlocks: incident narrative, operational impact. Still no compliance clock.

State AG / regulator filingThis record

Unlocks: discovery date, data types, affected count, compliance clock.

SEC 8-K / victim statement

Unlocks: materiality, stated response, full audit trail. Ceiling removed.

Source URL: https://oag.ca.gov/ecrime/databreach/reports/sb24-60880
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Apr 7, 2016
Raw hash: fca7ef5e3945252bd09998d9189eb0e8ded9885fcd6221dab8a8428b6235f44e

Reporting entityESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC.

Victim entityESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC.

Incidentdiscovered Mar 17, 2016

Stated responseReported the incident to law enforcement and the IRS

ComplianceCA 60-day OK

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenanceoag.ca.gov