Hackers Gain Access to Kansas City Department of Commerce and Over 5.5 Million Social Security Numbe
Job hunting site leaks social security numbers of users looking for employment.
A Kansas Department of Commerce data system was breached in March leaking Social Security numbers of more than 500,000 residents.
KCUR (a Kansas based news outlet) obtained the report through an open records request. The report revealed the data leaked included over 5.5 million SSNs from 10 different states. The data all came from a job seeking website where job seekers can post their resumes and look for job openings. The Kansas Department had been handling the information for 16 different sates, however, not all states were affected by the breach.
"America’s Job Link Alliance-TS, the Kansas Department of Commerce division that operates the system, discovered suspicious activity on March 12, isolated it on March 14 and contacted the FBI the next day, according to testimony provided by agency officials to Kansas lawmakers this spring" said KCUR.
"AJLA-TS officials also sought help from a third-party IT company specializing in forensic analysis. That analysis helped them verify that the coding error the hackers exploited had been fixed and to identify precisely which user accounts had been breached."
Kansas will pay for up to a year of credit monitoring services for victims in nine of the 10 affected states.
Source: KCUR
