This presentation tells the story of Washington’s Unemployment Insurance program during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, from the first American coronavirus patient diagnosed January 21 through the end of the year.
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Emergency federal unemployment programs launched early in the COVID-19 pandemic included provisions that opened state unemployment benefits to fraud, the Office of the Washington State Auditor found in three audits released today.
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The Office of the Washington State Auditor uses a third-party service provider, Accellion, to transmit data files in our audits. Accellion had a security incident in December, and announced it in January. On Monday, Feb. 1, Auditor Pat McCarthy announced that among other items, the information from 1.6 million unemployment claims might have been accessed by an unauthorized user. The investigation is ongoing.
Here are some questons and answers about this breach.
… CONTINUE READING → A security incident involving a third-party provider of hosted software services, which was used by the Office of the Washington State Auditor, might have exposed sensitive data belonging to Washingtonians.
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The State Auditor’s Office is changing some of the emails we send every week to better align with cybersecurity best practices.
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Some security breaches are required to be reported to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office (AGO), and sometimes you need to report various cybersecurity issues to the State Auditor’s Office, too! Of course, we hope you have none, but if you find yourself in this spot – here is some important information that can help you comply with law.
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It’s that time of year again, when villains, creeps and other dangerous characters are testing the locks and doors in your neighborhood ― virtually. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a chance to be sure you are doing your part to protect yourself and the value data and systems that keep public services working.
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Automated Clearing House (ACH) frauds have been on the rise for a while, and we want to tell you some simple steps you can take to properly verify ACH and payroll bank account changes before making changes.
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CIS is known for developing an array of cybersecurity controls and leading practices that can help organizations of all sizes protect their IT systems and data. In June, CIS recognized our cybersecurity auditors for their work applying the CIS Controls system to help Washington’s state and local governments.
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As local government workers get accustomed to working from home, there are a couple things our information technology experts here at the State Auditor’s Office consider to be some especially risky areas. This blog post covers the highest risk areas.
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