Government Payments Contractor Conduent Confirms Cyberattack Impacting Multiple States
Conduent, a New Jersey-based contractor that provides technology solutions for social service agencies and transit systems across the U.S., has confirmed that it was the target of a cyberattack. The incident disrupted operations and caused delays in child support payment processing in multiple states, including Wisconsin.
The attack first came to light when Wisconsin officials reported delays in distributing child support payments. Wisconsin was among four states affected by the outage.
A Conduent spokesperson acknowledged the disruption was caused by a cybersecurity incident but declined to share specific details about how the breach was identified or the timeline of the company’s response.
“Conduent experienced an operational disruption due to a cybersecurity incident,” the spokesperson stated in an email to Cybersecurity Dive. “This incident was contained, and all systems have been restored.”
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) was first informed about the incident on January 13, according to Gina Paige, a spokesperson for the department. Conduent, which serves as the vendor for the Wisconsin Child Support Trust Fund, was unable to process child support payments during the outage.
“The outage impacted payees who receive their payments via electronic transfer or an EBT card, preventing them from receiving their scheduled support payments,” Paige explained. However, she noted that payments from payors, including those processed through income withholding, were still being collected and would be processed once systems were operational again.
Conduent stated that the cybersecurity incident has been contained and services have been fully restored. The company has not disclosed further information about the breach or its broader impact on other states or systems.
