Rhode Island Benefits System Hit By Cyberattack

Rhode Island officials have revealed that hundreds of thousands of residents’ personal and financial information was likely stolen in a ransomware attack on the state’s government assistance programs. The breached data affects people who have applied for or received benefits since 2016 such as Medicaid, SNAP benefits, TANF, Childcare Assistance, long-term services and supports, HealthSource RI and other benefits. Data involved may include names, addresses, dates of births, social Security numbers and certain banking information.

The online benefits platform, RIBridges, was taken offline on Friday, after the state was informed that there was a major security threat to the system. Applications are being processed on paper until the issue is remediated.

Lawrence Pingree, VP, Dispersive had this to say:

 “Ransomware continues to plague many organizations and the strategies of protection against ransomware threat actors continually evolves. A keen focus on endpoint prevention, micro segmentation along with protection and isolation of Identity systems is key to reducing the impact of ransomware threats.”

As we come to the end of the year, I fully expect to see more situations like this where governments are targeted. That’s not good and it means that defenders should act accordingly.

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