State officials faced sympathy and censure Tuesday as details of a widespread Department of Labor data breach emerged.
The department mailed an estimated 55,000 1099 tax forms with mismatched personal information last week, according to Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington. On Monday, the department started hearing from people who had received the forms with the wrong information, including other people’s names and Social Security numbers.
The censure was directed Tuesday at the governor’s office. Lawmakers said the administration didn’t appear to be taking the matter as seriously as it should.
“If this had been somebody else, the attorney general would be all over this company,” said Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, in a meeting of the Senate Democratic Caucus. “This is a serious breach and I don’t think we’re treating it as seriously as it is.”
Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, noted that the governor’s Twitter account had featured a popular video of a panda in the snow Tuesday morning — and had not addressed the data breach.
“People have been reaching out to me since 9 o’clock yesterday morning,” Campion said. “He should be tweeting out information so that people know what to do, where to get this information and what they need to do at this point.”
Harrington briefed lawmakers Tuesday morning about the data breach and answered questions at the governor’s twice-weekly Covid-19 press conference. He said 80,000 to 90,000 people had received 1099s so far, and about 55,000 of those recipients received others’ information or had their own private information compromised.
The department is sending 1099 recipients a pre-stamped envelope so they can return the forms, Harrington said. In all, the department printed 180,000 1099s for mailing. Many Vermonters used more than one unemployment program in 2020 and were due to receive more than one 1099. But only about 80,000 had gone out already, Harrington said.
One went to retired kindergarten teacher Lizzy Sheehan of Georgia, who called the department to ask what to do after she received a 1099 with someone else’s Social Security number on it. Sheehan retired in September.
“This probably means someone else has my last name and my social security number,” said Sheehan. “Fortunately, I‘m honest. I’m not going to do anything with this Social Security number. But is the person who is going to receive my information going to do the same for me?”
Sheehan said the person who answered the phone for the department told her she’d be receiving information in the mail about what to do next.
“I said, ‘Geez, isn’t there something we can do now, before someone takes advantage of people’s Social Security numbers?’” Sheehan said. “She was lovely, but she really couldn’t help me. She said I could look at the DOL website to see if I could find out any more.”
It’s not clear what the state intends to do to help those whose information was compromised. Harrington on Tuesday stopped short of saying the department would pay for identity protection services.
“We need to be alerting those folks and providing next steps for safeguarding themselves and what the department and state is willing to do to help with that process and cover the cost of protective services for their ID,” he said.
The state Attorney General’s Office is scheduled to testify before the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, according to Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, who chairs that committee. Sirotkin said he hopes to hear about what steps the state can take to help people whose information was compromised, and to get input from the office about an investigation of what went wrong.
“I hope there would be a mutual agreement between the legislative and executive branch as to whether there will be an independent investigation,” Sirotkin said late Tuesday. “From what I am hearing, it sounds like the administration would be amenable to an independent investigation.”
Sirotkin said he was not looking for a place to assign blame. When Harrington testified in his committee early Tuesday, Sirotkin and his colleagues offered words of support.
“I’m sure you had a long night,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham. “Thank you for being here.”
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, said late Tuesday she wanted to see an investigation.
“Something like this is pretty egregious and can really affect thousands of lives,” she said. “We need to have some accountability and not allow for this to ever happen again.”
But Lyons nevertheless voiced support for Harrington.
“He’s been doing a terrific job for folks,” she said. “All the problems were corrected during the pandemic process and until the other day, things had been running pretty smoothly.”
Kit Norton contributed reporting.
