4 days ago
Information leaked from Illinois' system after phishing campaign
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WMBD) — The state of Illinois announced that information from hundreds of Illinois residents was compromised during a phishing campaign earlier this year.
Around Feb. 11, 2025, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services became aware of a phishing campaign targeting its employees in an attempt to gain access to their usernames and passwords, according to a state news release.
Emails were sent to employees from a government email account that had been hacked, making the emails appear trustworthy. This led to a Healthcare and Family Services employee's account being compromised.
Action was immediately taken to block the link contained in the email, inform all employees of the threat and reset any potentially compromised passwords.
A total of 933 people had their information compromised during this incident. That included 564 Illinois residents.
The information compromised may have included customer names, Social Security numbers, driver's license or state identification card numbers, financial information related to child support, child support or Medicaid identification and case numbers, and date of birth.
The department finished notifying affected clients by May 23.
Anyone who thinks they were affected can reach out to with questions.
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