Four states warn unemployment benefits applicants about data leaks:
The breaches stem from two incidents in which states hired contractors to quickly implement the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, or PUA, a version of unemployment insurance for Americans who don't qualify for conventional unemployment benefits but are otherwise unable to work because of the pandemic.
[...] The first incident stems from Arkansas, which launched its PUA website May 5. A week and a half later, it was forced to temporarily take the website down and alert 33,000 initial applicants that they had been exposed to a "data security incident," said Alisha Curtis, a spokesperson for the state Commerce Department.
[...] According to The Arkansas Times, the state took those steps only after a programmer trying to file for unemployment noticed a vulnerability that exposed the Social Security numbers and banking information of people who had applied for the program.
A contract acquired by KATV-TV of Little Rock showed that the state had paid a local company, Protech Solutions, $3 million to create its PUA website in a span of three weeks. Protech didn't respond to a request for comment.
[...] The second incident stems from one vendor. Colorado, Illinois and Ohio all hired the international consulting company Deloitte to build their PUA websites, each of which launched last week. The states have since alerted residents of a potential data leak.
According to a video that Illinois state Rep. Terri Bryant posted to Facebook, a constituent who tried to register for PUA benefits stumbled across "multiple peoples' names, full Social Security numbers, addresses," physical addresses and correspondence with the state Employment Security Department.
[...] The states said Deloitte told each of them about a bug that gave some claimants access to others' personal information and said it fixed the issue within an hour. The company told Ohio that about two dozen of its residents were given such access, and it told Colorado that about six were, according to representatives of the states' labor departments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @03:43AM (3 children)
So how much is it on the black market for the SSNs of 26 million unemployed people?
(Score: 3, Touché) by MostCynical on Saturday May 23 2020, @04:15AM (2 children)
how is a Social Security Number still worth anything?
Surely they are, by now, all public information?
Does anyone in America have a 'secret' SSN?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @12:16PM (1 child)
No. The SSN is not a secret, is not meant as a secret, and thinking it ever was a secret is foolish.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2020, @12:54AM
But it is being used as a secret by organizations with greater access to justice than you, so it is in your interest to keep it secret.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday May 23 2020, @08:06AM (3 children)
No one can feed a hungry family with personal data, no matter how precious the data is.
Those unemployed mostly have no option, they just cannot afford to freely decide not to register for relief.
This is what you get for promoting insecure technologies by design at mass scale for generally political reasons: an uncontrollable failure of critical element in a climax moment of operational crisis.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @03:40PM (2 children)
Exactly, the lazy whiners should get off their ass and get a JOB.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @07:00PM (1 child)
Absolutely!
And there are many jobs available for waiters, masseurs/masseuses, personal trainers, hookers, home health aides and other important jobs.
Especially since most of the people who used to do those jobs are too dumb to realize that they need to make money to survive.
It's not like there's a pandemic going on or anything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @10:38PM
Lemons, lemonade. The whiners could get handrail cleansing jobs or jump into the meat packing career track. There's so many possibilities it's ridiculous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @05:42PM
Windows-using parasites
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday May 23 2020, @09:39PM (1 child)
Am I the only one that at first glance read this as Dolittle?
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @10:58PM
I didn't read that far in. Just straight to the comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2020, @12:57AM
I live in a state where the democrat governor rules with emergency powers.
A friend worked in a coffee shop and was one of the first to lose her job after the governor forbade people to leave their homes freely. She had applied for unemployment benefits and still hasn't received any.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2020, @09:42PM
Are you enjoying COVID-19, Boomers? I hope you are, because your political response to the pandemic has completely destroyed the economy. Did we really need a Great Recession in 2008 caused by you, and a Great Lockdown in 2020 caused by you? Are you proud of yourselves for creating an economic depression even worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s? Are you proud of yourselves, Boomers? Your legacy will be economic ruin for all. You don't care as long as you Boomers continue to receive your pensions. You Boomers don't have jobs. You Boomers don't create jobs. You Boomers don't do anything for anyone ever. You Boomers are utterly worthless parasites. You don't care about anybody except yourselves. Everybody except you is forced at gunpoint to wear a facemask while you Boomers sit in your giant mansions laughing and waiting to die when you will be buried with your fortunes so nobody will ever touch your precious money.
Boomers did COVID-19.