Losing a job and struggling with finances have added significant stress to those trying to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is no secret that for weeks, state departments administering unemployment compensation have been under fire due to massive backlogs of unprocessed claims. Adding to claimants’ frustrations are a number of security incidents affecting several states’ agencies. We previously reported that the Small Business Administration experienced a breach compromising personal data for thousands of applications for financial assistance. Now we are seeing state level entities experiencing security compromises.
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) is unemployment compensation available to self-employed and “gig” workers. In the past several weeks, thousands of workers in several states who applied for PUA received notice that their personal information was possibly exposed to other users. The personal information exposed included social security numbers, addresses, names, and the amount workers were receiving in benefits. Fortunately, at least at this time, there is no evidence personal information was misused and the alerts from the states were preventative.
Continue Reading Adding Insult to Injury: Government Agency Security Incidents Expose Unemployed Personal Data