JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida’s unemployment system is already known for having its fair share of issues. On Thursday, another issue was added to the list.
The Department of Economic Opportunity confirmed 98 people were part of a data security incident.
The agency said the issue was addressed within one hour and everyone affected should have already been notified and will receive identity protection services.
DEO has not said what or if any information was compromised but went on to say it has not received any reports of malicious activity.
The same day that data security incident happened, an email went out to some filing for or receiving unemployment reading in part:
The Florida Department of Economic opportunity has received your reemployment assistance claim application. However, we need more information to process your claim.
The person is asked to use their social security number to log in and then put in some personal information like their bank account.
News4Jax reached out to the DEO to see if this email was part of the data security incident.
It wasn’t. The email was real, just bad timing.
The DEO says the number one give away that an email is legitimate is the DEO uses a “do not reply” email address.
The email address they use is donotreplyreemploymentassistance@deo.myflorida.com.
If you receive an email with any other variation than that as the sender, you’re going to want to question it and it’s recommended you do not click on any of the links until it’s confirmed legitimate.
If you receive an email from the DEO asking to set up an account with a new pin but you already have a PIN number and have access to CONNECT, you do not need to reset it.
One way to know if an email from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is legitimate