Hack of Jobless Aid Vendor Spotlights Gaps in State Systems

The hack of an unemployment insurance technology company that disrupted more than a dozen state agencies’ systems caught the attention of the US Department of Labor and its independent watchdog.

And although the system outages were short-lived, the incident reiterates the importance of best practices within the unemployment system, such as states performing independent cybersecurity audits and having backup systems to keep paying benefits if their main systems go offline.

At least 18 states that contract with Florida-based Geographic Solutions Inc. had their job search or part of their unemployment insurance systems offline for a period of time within the ...