A cyberattack on IT services provider Geographic Solutions, Inc. (GSI) has disrupted the provision of unemployment and workforce benefits for thousands of people in several states and Washington, D.C.
Florida-based Geographic Solutions has not issued a direct statement on the attack, but told state agency customers about the situation, and several state agencies relayed that information on their public websites.
According to a statement on the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s (TDLWD) Jobs4TN.gov site, Geographic Solutions President Paul Toomey told the state on June 29 that the company “recently identified anomalous activity on our network, and immediately took the Jobs4TN system offline to halt the activity.”
“With the help of third-party specialists, we are conducting a full investigation to determine the cause and scope of the incident,” Toomey said. “That investigation is still ongoing, and we are taking steps to help prevent this from happening again. Our current focus is working around the clock to bring Jobs4TN back online.
Geographic Solutions’ public website was offline on July 5 and undergoing maintenance.
GSI operates the Jobs4TN.gov site – the state’s unemployment system and labor data exchange that approximately 12,000 Tennesseans rely on.
“The Department will distribute benefits as soon as possible, right now there is no timeline as to when that will happen,” wrote TDLWD in a separate statement. “Once the system is operational, claimants can complete their certifications for any missed weeks, and they will receive a lump sum for any delayed payments.”
Nebraska’s Department of Labor (NDOL) released a statement June 28 stating that GSI had not yet provided a projected date for when the outage will be resolved.
NDOL also said that the outage wouldn’t prevent otherwise eligible claimants to receive unemployment insurance benefits in the state, and that NDOL would prioritize ensuring payments are issued promptly once the NEworks website is back online.
“GSI indicated this attack affected only access to GSI online systems and there is no evidence of any user data being compromised,” wrote NDOL.
CNN reported that Geographic Solutions “immediately took some systems offline to halt the activity.”
