Here we go again…

A data breach of epic proportion has been reported at America’s Job Link Alliance (ALJA), a third party service offered through the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for coordinating workforce development and federal unemployment programs.

At least 10 states have been named so far in the data breach, including Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Kansas, Oklahoma and Vermont.

Since this is a developing story, we expect more states will be named by the end of the week.

According to SC Magazine, the data breach occurred when a hacker created a jobs account in the AJL system on February 20.

"The hacker then exploited a misconfiguration in the application code to gain unauthorized access to certain information of other job seekers,” the AJLA stated.

The data breach lasted for 10 days before it was fixed, and right now AJLA is working with law enforcement to identify the responsible party. The organization is now proceeding with notifying  affected individuals, as the process was delayed after the discovery.

As of right now, there is no evidence that any of the information — which included names, birthdays and Social Security numbers — was misused. However, the investigation is ongoing and so further information could arise in the near future.

So, how many people were impacted? There is no official tally yet, but the figures that are rolling in are startling:

• Vermont: 182,000 people (almost one third of all Vermonters)
• Oklahoma: 430,000 people.
• Maine: 12,650 people (since July)
• Delaware: 200,000 people

A new breed of hacktrepeneurs has awoken and they have little to fear and everything to gain by infecting as many companies as possible and extorting money from them. Apex Technology Services stands ready to protect your company regardless of whether it’s located in New York City; White Plains, New York; Connecticut; Australia; Europe; or anywhere else. Our full suite of cybersecurity and IT support services is at your disposal, enabling you to spend less time worrying about and more time growing your business.

To ensure your security, consider one of our most popular services — Auditing & Documentation — which pinpoints vulnerabilities in your infrastructure, process flow and internal security procedures.