Hotline, credit monitoring offered to job-seekers with hacked accounts
After 170,000 Idaho residents were potential victims of identity theft through the Department of Labor, a toll-free number and credit monitoring service has been made available.
On March 12-13, about 170,000 of the Idaho Department of Labor’s 530,000 job-seeker accounts – active and historical – were compromised by a hacking incident of America’s Job Link.
A toll-free phone number has been set up for customers who have additional questions about the recent data breach involving America’s Job Link, a Kansas-based, multi-state system that operates the Idaho Department of Labor’s IdahoWorks job search engine.
The number, 1-844-469-3939, will be answered from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday.
In addition, America’s Job Link has agreed to offer one year of credit monitoring services to the individuals whose accounts were compromised.
“The privacy and protection of Idahoans’ data is of utmost importance,” said Idaho Department of Labor Director Ken Edmunds. “The department is working closely with AJL and advocating strongly for our customers.”
Customers whose accounts may have been accessed are being asked to place a fraud alert on their credit reports and to notify law enforcement officials if they discover any suspicious activity.
Updated information and frequently asked questions about the incident will be posted online at labor.idaho.gov/security. The website also includes links to information about how customers can protect themselves from identity theft.
Law enforcement was notified immediately once the data breach was discovered and the matter is under investigation.
A private sector forensics firm was retained to investigate the cause and scope of the malicious activity which revealed which accounts were compromised. Since then, a third-party analysis by the data forensic team has confirmed the code misconfiguration was identified, fixed and is no longer a threat to IdahoWorks.
Ruth Brown: 208-377-6207, @RuthBrownNews
This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Hotline, credit monitoring offered to job-seekers with hacked accounts."