[BreachExchange] Florida’s unemployment site hacked, exposing personal data on 58,000 claimants

[Sophia Kingsbury]

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/07/23/floridas-unemployment-site-hacked-exposing-personal-data-on-58000-claimants/

TALLAHASSEE — Hackers targeting Florida’s unemployment website potentially
stole the personal data, including Social Security numbers, of nearly
58,000 people.

The Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday that hackers targeted
the site, known as CONNECT, between April 27 and July 16 of this year,
breaching the personal information of unemployment recipients.

The hackers targeted 57,920 claimant accounts, the department said, and
they might have obtained those people’s Social Security numbers, driver’s
license numbers, bank account numbers, claim information and other personal
details, such as addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth.

They might also have stolen users’ PIN numbers they use to access their
accounts, the department said.

The attack was discovered last week. The department recently started
notifying affected Floridians of the breach. It did not send out a news
release, as noted by Miami activist Vanessa Brito, who has been helping
Floridians navigate the state’s broken unemployment system.

The state did not say if it knew the identity of the hackers but said it
reported the breach to law enforcement.

The department has locked the accounts of potentially affected users,
reported them to the three credit reporting agencies and purchased a year
of identity protection services for them, the department said.

The department is recommending that the impacted claimants monitor their
financial accounts, and if they see any unauthorized activity, they should
promptly contact their financial institution.

Claimants may contact the Federal Trade Commission by calling
1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338) or going online at
www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/. The department also recommends claimants
contact the three U.S. credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and
TransUnion) to obtain a free credit report from each by calling
1-877-322-8228 or by logging onto www.annualcreditreport.com.

The breach is just the latest headache for Floridians applying for or
receiving unemployment insurance through CONNECT. The system was crippled
during the pandemic, and more than a year later, it still experiences
outages and technical glitches that make it difficult to file and receive
claims.
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