CHARLESTON, W.Va. — WorkForce West Virginia has notified a number of state residents in the past week of a potential data breach involving some of their personal information.
WorkForce said that on April 13 it learned that “an unauthorized individual” accessed the Mid Atlantic Career Consortium Employment Services database and potentially could have taken personal information of some who have been in the WorkForce system.
The agency said the breach may have created access of name, address, phone number, date of birth and Social Security number.
In a letter sent last week, WorkForce said it wanted to notify residents just in case and offer a complimentary one-year membership to Kroll’s Identity Monitoring services, which includes Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Restoration.
Bridgeport resident Don Horne received one of the letters from WorkForce. He double-checked with the agency to make sure it was legitimate.
“I’ve had this happen with credit cards before. I’ve received a one-year credit monitoring from them. When I logged into the (Kroll’s) screen they started asking for Social Security numbers and all of that and that’s when I started getting leery and all,” Horne said.
Horne, who is retired now and was last in the WorkForce system in 2014, confirmed everything with WorkForce Tuesday. WorkForce also confirmed the situation with MetroNews.
WorkForce said it took immediate steps to secure its network when it first found out about the possible breach. It used forensic resources during the investigation.
Mitigating any potential risk for constituents continues to be our top priority,” said Scott Adkins, acting commissioner of WorkForce West Virginia. “Constituents should follow the guidance provided in the letter they received from WorkForce if they have any questions.”
Gov. Jim Justice said Adkins would be part of Thursday’s coronavirus media briefing.
There was no initial word on how many people WorkForce notified.