An international group of cybercriminals, most likely, managed to hack into the personal and banking information of hundreds of thousands of residents of the US state of Rhode Island, including Social Security numbers in an effort to get a ransom.
In what Rhode Island officials called extortion, the hackers threatened to publish the stolen information unless an undisclosed amount was paid.
State Governor Dan McKee announced that the hacked data affects people who use state government assistance programs.
The governor’s office said in a statement that hackers managed to hack the state’s online portal for Social Services earlier this month, but the hack was not confirmed by Deloitte, the company responsible for the portal, until Friday.
“Deloitte has confirmed that there is a high probability that a cyber gang has obtained files containing personally identifiable information from the portal,”the governor’s office said in a statement.
It is possible that the hack has harmed people who have applied for or received benefits through these programs since 2016.
The state directed Deloitte to close the portal to deal with that problem and anyone applying for new benefits will have to do so on paper applications until order is restored.
Families believed to have been affected will receive a letter from the state notifying them of the problem and explaining steps to be taken to help protect their data and bank accounts.
