Unemployment Data Leaked: Names, Full SSN, Addresses

As if adjusting to Covid-19 life, trying to stay safe, losing a job and struggling with finances weren’t enough. The newly unemployed now have one more thing to add to the list. NBC reports that four states—possibly more—are warning their online unemployment applicants “that their personal information may have been leaked.” Boy, when it rains, it really does poor.

Kevin Collier, NBC cybersecurity reporter, informs that in the mad dash to get unemployment to tens of thousands who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, several state governments ended up exposing their residents to identity theft. Social security numbers and banking information are among the leaked personal information.

Data Leak Details

The first incident occurred in Arkansas after the state launched its online Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program back on May 5. A local Arkansas company named Protech spent three weeks developing the system and was paid $3 million to do so.

The second incident involved a different company and three additional states: Colorado, Illinois and Ohio. Each state hired Deloitte, a global consulting giant, to develop their respective online Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programs. According to NBC’s reporting, these systems only went live a week ago yet each experienced a data security breach of their own.

In at least the cases of Arkansas and Illinois, the data leak was only first identified after unemployment applicants who were using the online systems to register for unemployment benefits realized that they could see all sorts of data that belonged to other applicants. The kind of information that was exposed included names, full social security numbers, banking details, addresses, number of dependents and even (at least in Illinois) correspondence between the unemployment office and unemployment applicants.

Neither Protech nor Deloitte responded to NBC’s request for comment. However, the three states (Colorado, Illinois and Ohio) who had their systems developed by Deloitte did inform NBC that Deloitte notified them about the data leak as soon as it was discovered. They communicated that the problem was corrected within an hour after becoming aware of it.

See below: Illinois State Representative Terri Bryant (R – 115^th District) shares what the individual who first discovered the breach told her about it.

It appears that all four states are indeed taking steps to rectify the matter and have notified unemployment registrants about the data leak and security breach.

Unemployment Update

The latest weekly jobless numbers were revealed today. Another 2.4 million people filed new unemployment claims this past week. This brings the total number of newly unemployed to 38.6 million—nearly 40 million—in just nine weeks. It’s getting hard to find words to describe this. I’ve been calling the record-breaking unemployment staggering, but it was staggering the first week that the number of new claims was in the millions. Each week we’ve seen the number of newly unemployed go from 3.2 million to now nearly 40 million. It would be great to have a better word to describe what’s happening other than staggering because somehow even that word doesn’t seem to fit anymore.

Still, this is happening. And the people losing their jobs are real people with real bills and real anxieties and stressors. Now, this data leak is one more thing they have to add to their burdens. In addition to worrying about work or while searching—during this Covid-19 economy no less—for a new job, unemployed people in at least four states have to wonder just how many people gained full access to their personal information before the data leak was plugged. And, they have to wonder just what they might try to do with it.

Think about it. In addition to trying to stay safe, protect their families, find other jobs and struggle to pay their bills, they now have to wonder if they will be the next victims of identity theft. What a way to add to the struggles of the unemployed.