Two more states have reported breaches or issues with state portals to apply for pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
In Ohio, Maggy McDonel reports:
The personal information of Ohioans receiving pandemic unemployment assistance was recently exposed to a data breach, according to Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
The information reportedly included names, Social Security numbers and street addresses.
ODJFS acknowledged what it described as the “data issue” in a release sent out Wednesday afternoon.
The department says Deloitte Consulting notified it last weekend that around two-dozen people were able “to view other PUA claimants’ correspondence.”
Read more on Fox19.
And in Colorado, Joe Rubino reports:
All 72,000 people signed up for pandemic unemployment assistance in Colorado are eligible for a year of free credit monitoring after a system error gave six people approved for benefits access to everyone else’s private information.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment was alerted to the problem Saturday. In a statement, the department referred to the situation as a “limited and intermittent data access issue.” State officials insist it was not a data breach.
Read more on Reporter Herald.
Ohio and Colorado are the third and fourth states we know of that have reported problems with state portals involved in filing for unemployment assistance. Arkansas was the first and Illinois was the second. At this point, it doesn’t seem like the states are all using the same program, but do not be surprised if more states report problems like these.