Conduent Outage: Cyberattack Not Ruled Out - Latest Updates

Conduent Outage Disrupts Services Across Multiple U.S. States

A prolonged “service interruption” impacting the major government contractor, Conduent, has resulted in widespread outages across numerous U.S. states. This disruption has left citizens unable to access crucial benefits and support payments.

Possible Cyberattack

Sources with knowledge of the situation have indicated to TechCrunch that a cyberattack is the likely cause of the outage. While Conduent spokesperson Sean Collins has confirmed the ongoing service interruption, he refrained from commenting on the nature of the incident or confirming a cyberattack.

Collins stated, “Our technology team is diligently working to resolve any remaining issues and service has been restored for some applications over the last several days.”

State-Level Impacts

Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families announced via social media on January 17th that the state was experiencing difficulties processing child support payments. The department reported that the Conduent outage was affecting at least four states, including Wisconsin.

Gina Paige, a department spokesperson, confirmed service restoration on January 19th. However, she directed inquiries regarding the outage’s cause back to Conduent.

Oklahoma Human Services, responsible for the state’s food assistance program, informed residents on January 9th that Conduent’s customer service line was affected by a “technical outage.” Casey White, a spokesperson for the agency, stated that Oklahoma’s systems were functioning normally and that no security-related outages originating from Conduent were detected.

Previous Security Incident

Conduent previously acknowledged a ransomware attack in June 2020, several days after initially reporting a service interruption. The Maze ransomware group claimed responsibility for the breach and subsequently released stolen documents from Conduent’s systems.

Contact Information

For secure communication, Zack Whittaker can be reached on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849. Secure document sharing with TechCrunch is also possible via SecureDrop.

Further Details

• The outage has impacted access to benefits and support payments for residents in multiple states.
• Conduent has acknowledged the service interruption but has not confirmed a cyberattack.
• Wisconsin and Oklahoma are among the states affected by the disruption.
• This is not the first time Conduent has experienced a security incident; a ransomware attack occurred in 2020.