Kansas Dept. of Commerce Hacked; Millions of Social Security Numbers Accessed

Records show a breach of a Kansas Department of Commerce data system gave hackers access to more than 5.5 million Social Security numbers in 10 states.

The Kansas News Service reports records it obtained through an open records request show more than half a million of the 5.5 million Social Security numbers obtained by hackers were from Kansas. The records also show about 805,000 other accounts that didn’t include Social Security numbers were exposed.

The department will pay for credit monitoring for most of the victims.

The suspicious activity was discovered March 12 by America’s Job Link Alliance-TS, the commerce department division that operates the system. The FBI was contacted March 15.

A commerce department representative didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.