Yesterday during the daily COVID-19 update for the state of Kentucky, Deputy Secretary of the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Josh Benton announced that more than 15,000 March and April pending claims were processed this week.

Deputy Secretary Benton said, “We are putting our most seasoned staff on the most difficult claims.”

He also explained what it means when a claim is “under investigation.”

“That simply means that there’s something missing or a piece of information that is inaccurate that has to be investigated and reviewed in their claim before a determination can be made,” said Deputy Secretary Benton.

Finally, he updated Kentuckians on a security incident that took place in the unemployment insurance system and the actions taken to address it.

A potential vulnerability in the online Unemployment Insurance Portal was reported to the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet’s Office of Technology Services (OTS) on April 23, 2020, at 9:17 a.m.

According to the report, some Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants could have been able to view the identity verification documents uploaded by other UI claimants. To date, no reports of identity theft or financial harm have been received.

OTS prevented any further incidents by taking the UI Portal completely offline at 11:30 a.m. By noon, OTS had changed the system to ensure no one was able to view any uploaded documents. By midnight, the security team had patched the software to correct the problem permanently.

While the Governor’s Office of General Counsel has been told the breach has been corrected, the Governor is concerned with the situation and asked the Transportation Cabinet inspector general – who is independent from the Education Cabinet – to conduct a full review. The Governor is also reorganizing the office, which will soon be under the Labor Cabinet, and bringing in new leadership.