The Kansas Department of Labor reports new ID verification software has blocked more than 1-million fraudulent attempts to login to the state’s unemployment system.
Kansas had been seeing record amounts of fraud, leading to the security upgrade that’s been in place since February 2. This upgrade has been fighting attacks both from individuals and from automated computers called bots.
“One of the goals of this security software upgrade was to stop the flood of fraudulent claims the Department of Labor has been dealing with, and with over one million fraudulent logins and BOT attacks blocked, we are seeing immediate success,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Amber Shultz. “We expect these results to continue, and drive a decline or outright elimination in fraudulent benefit notices that businesses and individuals in Kansas have been receiving. Further, with two-factor authentication tools, Kansans will be able to prove they are who they say they are, and we will be able to release their benefits for payment more efficiently and effectively than before,” Shultz said.
Originally, the state was seeing fairly simple spamming attempts to get access to someone’s information, but this quickly turned to a large scale attack using automated software that disrupted the unemployment site’s ability to operate. Stopping the automated attacks takes a lot of strain off the state’s computer systems.
People trying to access unemployment benefits after the security upgrade will need to create a new account, as their old ones will not work. While signing up, you’ll be asked a series of specific questions about your credit history. This helps confirm your identity and keep people from getting ahold of your information. Use the link below to go straight to the Kansas unemployment portal.
