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COLUMBIA (WACH) -- “South Carolina has come under attack, but South Carolina will fight back,” says Governor Nikki Haley.

It’s this statement by the Governor that’s causing many across the Palmetto State to be on high alert.

Taxpayers flooding the South Carolina Department of Revenue hotline number searching for answers.

“We now know that there’s evidence that the intrusion began as early as August 27th and it originated from a foreign IP address,” says Mark Keel, Chief, SLED.

Nearly 3.6 million South Carolina social security numbers and almost 400,000 credit and debit card numbers have been exposed.

Department of Revenue officials telling WACH Fox Saturday they've worked with Experian Fraud Reporting to add extra call representatives to the phone lines.

They’ve also added a message line with an activation code in hopes that the volume of calls will be handled.

In the meantime Lexington State Senator Jake Knotts drafting a bill which will allow certain tax deductions to help recoup costs related to those who's been a victim of identify theft and the recent international hacking incident.

SLED knew about the attack on October 10th but waited sixteen days to tell the public about the security breach while they worked to stop the attacker.

“What I am every conscious of is when any law enforcement division tells you this will hurt our situation for this to get out, we need to be conscious of the fact that we need to let them do their job,” says Governor Nikki Haley.

For one year South Carolina Department of Revenue through Experian Protect MyID alert program will provide affected taxpayers a free credit report, daily credit monitoring to detect suspicious activity and a one million dollar id theft insurance policy. 

As for Senator Knotts he says his bill is in the draft stage and it will be pre-filed in December.

Here's what you need to do to find out if your information was compromised:

Step 1. Call 1-866-578-5422 where you will enroll in a consumer protection service. The hours of operation are Monday – Friday 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM Eastern, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM Eastern.

Step 2. Then you will determine if you wish to have an online or US Mail alert mechanism.

Step 3. Next visit www.protectmyid.com/scdor.