14 DAY TRIAL // An employee of the Vermont Department of Labour (VDOL) has been caught with personally identifiable information of people from the Unemployment Insurance database, social security numbers (SSN) being among the details extracted.
The individual was not authorized to be in possession of such details and is no longer working at the department.
Data was acquired in full tax season
The full extent of the data stolen has not been disclosed, but the former employee also had the names of the owners of the SSNs. This information is sufficient to file fraudulent tax returns in the name of the victim.
Given that the incident was discovered on February 24, 2015, and that the deadline for tax return applications was April 15, this type of nefarious activity may have been the reason for taking the sensitive information.
According to a letter disclosing the event, the individual may have collected the data some time between mid-January and the end of February. However, this is only an estimation given by VDOL and the period may not be accurate.
Info does not appear to have been transferred to another party
The number of people whose data has been exposed has not been disclosed by the organization.
After learning of the illegal action, VDOL contacted the Vermont State Police to start an investigation into the matter. The personal computer of the culprit was examined in order to find out the possible usage of the data.
Documents seized by the police are still being examined, as well as the former employee’s home computer system and data from the Internet provider, in order to determine if the information had been transferred to a third party that may have used it for malicious purposes.
Until now, no evidence has been found that the data leaked to a different entity. This is good news because it decreases the risk of identity theft.
Impacted individuals, as well as their employers, have been notified of the breach. On the same note, the Internal Revenue Service received a notification about the incident.