A number of states, including Louisiana, Nebraska and Tennessee, are battling cyberattacks that have made it nearly impossible to pay unemployment benefits.
According to multiple sources, the company that administers unemployment benefits for 40 states and Washington, D.C., Geographic Solutions was reportedly affected by cyberattacks that began on June 26. To mitigate potential damage, several state unemployment benefits websites were taken offline.
In Tennessee, payments to at least 12,000 individuals are to be suspended, and in Louisiana, payments will be made two days later than normal as part of the attack.
On June 29th, Geographic Solutions announced that no personal information was accessed as a result of the attacks and that no data was removed from its network operation center. On July 6th, the Geographic Solutions website was shut down for maintenance with no updates on when unemployment benefits would begin.
Geographic Solutions has not yet publicly commented on the type of malware to which its systems have been exposed.
Tim Marley, vice president of Audit, Risk & Compliance and Field CISO at Cerberus Sentinel, said that risk becomes a factor when sensitive data and the management of unemployment benefits are placed in the hands of third-party vendors.
The sources for this piece include an article in TechRepublic.
