Officials of the US state of Rhode Island said that a group of hackers hacked the personal and banking information of hundreds of thousands of residents of the state, including Social Security numbers, in an effort to get a ransom.
The hacker group threatened to publish the stolen information unless a ransom was paid. Governor of the State Dan McKee announced that the hacked data affects people using state government assistance programs.
The governor's office said in a statement that hackers managed to hack the state's electronic portal dedicated to obtaining social services earlier this month, but the hack has not been confirmed by Deloitte, the company responsible for the portal.
"Deloitte has confirmed that there is a high probability that a cyber gang has obtained files containing personally identifiable information from the portal,"the governor's office said.
It is possible that the hack has harmed people who have applied for benefits, or obtained them through these programs since 2016.
The state has asked Deloitte to close the portal to deal with that problem, and anyone applying for new benefits will have to do so on paper applications, until order is restored.
