Governor Hutchinson announced in today's (May 16) press conference that the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program website has had a potential security breach.
The website has been shut down for the time being until they can get a handle on the situation.
According to Governor Hutchinson, an applicant seems to have illegally accessed the system and as soon as this was discovered, the website was shut down.
The following steps fulfilling the state's requirements for any potential data breach have been taken in response to this.
- Law enforcement has been notified of the breach.
- The cyber insurance carrier has been notified.
- Forensics are currently being conducted by an outside IT expert.
Governor Hutchinson says they want to make sure that the system is in good shape before it goes back online. If the investigations find that any personal sensitive data is compromised, the necessary steps will be taken. Governor Hutchinson says that if anyone's personal information was compromised, they will be notified, and if necessary, a credit monitoring program will take place.
Governor Hutchinson also said teams will be working to get the system back up and payments processed.
"In terms of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments, the team continues to work through the weekend as I have indicated, to get the system back up, payments processed, in trying to meet the goal of money out the door, next week," said Governor Hutchinson.
Stay with 5NEWS for updates on this developing story.