Today Suffolk County employees will start getting letters informing them their social security number could now be compromised following the county's cyber attack.

A spokesperson for the county tells News 12 that the ongoing forensic investigation into the breach revealed that around 26,000 Social Security numbers may have been accessed by hackers.

County Executive Steve Bellone said the forensic team investigating the breach discovered a county server containing employee health plan information had been compromised.

County officials had a four-hour meeting on Wednesday about this wide-scale breach of personal data. They do not believe protected health information was exposed, but said social security numbers were taken from the server.

This applies only to county employees and retirees who were enrolled with the county's medical health plan since 2013.

The issue happened after it was discovered that tax refunds would be delayed, and nearly 500,000 driver's license numbers were potentially stolen.

The county says it will provide free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for up to 12 months.

There will also be a special legislative committee to investigate how it happened.