Industry News Home More stories like this... RSS Feed

Thousands exposed to online threats in agency mishap

Thousands of job seekers in the US were left exposed to online threats after their personal data was posted online by the Florida state government employment agency, it has emerged.

A security breach has been cited by the state Agency for Workforce Innovation as the reason why around 250,000 people may have been exposed to ID theft, when their names and social security numbers were published.

According to the organisation, the details, which were exposed for a period of 19 days in October, were posted by mistake but it did not know if anyone has become a victim of ID theft.

"We are thoroughly investigating this matter and are making every effort to enhance the security of our computer systems," said agency director Monesia Brown in a statement.

Details of the mishap emerged after a state Department of Revenue employee stumbled upon the data during what was described as routine work and alerted the agency.

According to the Sun Sentinel, this is the agency's second such breach since 2006.

Safeguard your account numbers and passwords against identity theft. Visit www.pctools.com to upgrade your protection