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Cybersecurity

Delaware job site gets hacked: 200K accounts are potential victims of SSN theft

The site is run by America’s Job Link Alliance, a company in Kansas that said that at least three other state job sites were also affected.

Job sites in four states were affected by the breach. (Photo by Flickr user Christiaan Colen)

The official Delaware JobLink site run by the state’s Labor Department has suffered a breach. The News Journal reports that more than 200,000 accounts have potentially been stolen from the 253,420 unique users.
The database carried the Delaware name, but it wasn’t managed by a Delaware-based company. That job fell to America’s Job Link Alliance (AJLA), a company based in Kansas that handles job software for nine other states.
The AJLA stated that the person or people who made the breach could openly view “the names, Social Security Numbers, and dates of birth of job seekers.” That information could easily be sold for a high price on shadier parts of the internet.
The attack is larger than Delaware; it affected at least four states in their database. The AJLA says that they’ve fixed the vulnerability, and they are considering a solution that doesn’t require their database to store social security numbers.
This breach is absolutely massive in terms of the state’s population — it’s roughly 20 percent of the state’s population — and the fact that it occurred on a government-sponsored website will push users to be even more skeptical and frustrated with the situation.
Delaware Department of Labor Secretary Patrice Gilliam Johnson, per The News Journal, says that Delaware job seekers should consider using JobLink.
The AJLA suggests that those concerned for their privacy (which should be everyone who has an account) should monitor their credit reports with the three major rating agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Furthermore, The News Journal points to the IRS’ Identity Protection Specialized Unit. Call them: 1 (800) 908-4490
This breach is no joke. If you think you were affected, take action now.

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