Illinois benefits web portal breached, state to provide assistance to those affected

Zach Roth, State Journal-Register
·2 min read
The sun rises over the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., Wednesday, October 20, 2021. The state is the top employer in Sangamon County. [Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register]

Two state agencies will provide credit monitoring and a hotline for people to register complaints after the Application for Benefits Eligibility platform was breached in August.

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Illinois Department of Human Services announced Friday that they had to shut down the ABE system after it was revealed that people could view customer applications before the state approved them.

ABE is used to help Medicaid providers submit applications for benefits with the consent of those seeking to obtain those benefits. In addition to Medicaid, the system is used to store applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

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The way that people could view them was through clicking a series of buttons on the site in a specific order, exposing those applications to anyone viewing the site. Those applications included information such as name, gender, date of birth, county, application type and application status. In some cases, Social Security numbers, medical information and income information was included alongside the traditional information.

As a result, the provider portal was shut down Aug. 23 to fix any issues related to the breach. After more than a month of tweaks, the portal reopened Sept. 29.

A press release said that the state was not aware of any instance in which personal information was misused and it believes the risk is low for anyone with applications on the site. Both HFS and IDHS will provide a year's worth of credit monitoring for those affected and have opened up a phone hotline to assist people seeking more information. The line at 1-844-700-0330 will be open until Jan. 23.

People are also asked to contact consumer reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion if they need to place any kind of hold on their credit.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: ABE assistance portal breached, Illinois to assist those affected