AMM’s Commitment to Your Data Security, Transparency, and Best Practices in Action

This blog post is a slight departure from our usual topic of wedding ceremonies, but with data security front-and-center in today’s world, we wanted to take a few minutes to talk about some recent data security developments here at AMM. In the wake of a review of our data security, experts hired by AMM discovered that the personal information of some ministers might have been affected. While the scope of the data is limited, it’s worth getting into the details to ensure that we’re doing everything we can in the interest of full transparency.

In December 2021, we hired a data forensics consultant to review our data security to determine whether information like names and dates of birth that we collect might be available elsewhere on the internet. Upon conclusion of their review, it was determined that information such as names and dates of birth collected between 2009 and March 2018 had been accessed.

Most states don’t consider information of this nature to be “personal information” – only the State of Washington and North Dakota do – however our commitment to transparency compels us to do a thorough investigation, gather the details, and then make them publicly available. 

That’s what this post is for. 

We’ve taken this opportunity to bring new specialists onto our team to ensure that we continue to protect your information, using the best technologies and practices available.

It’s important to note that the information that was accessed is very limited, and can for the most part be discovered by a simple internet search. This information does not include critical financial or government identification information. Put another way, the information that was accessed is not even considered “personal information” in 96% of states. 

This potentially affected information does not include any credit or debit card information, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, or other government-issued identification card numbers. This also means that no passwords or other login credentials were affected either.

That said, when you got ordained, you chose AMM because of our high standards and ethics. We sincerely apologize for this incident and any inconvenience it may cause you. While we are not currently aware of any misuse of or fraud relating to this information, we do want to also let you know the following:

If you have any questions about this matter, please contact us by emailing us at [email protected], or by calling us at 206-466-8949.

We do not know when the above information may have first been accessible on the internet. However, as soon as we determined how the above information may have been made accessible, we took immediate action to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future. We have also reported this matter to the FBI.

Even though we do not have any indication of actual harm to ministers or risk thereof, we still recommend that you do what all persons in today’s world must, unfortunately, do to protect themselves: remain vigilant by regularly reviewing statements from your accounts, and periodically obtaining your credit report from one or more of the national credit reporting companies. 

In closing, we apologize for any concern or inconvenience this may cause you. And once again, if at any time you have any questions or concerns about this matter, please contact us at the email address or phone number noted above.