If you receive benefits from the State, your personal information is at risk. Take steps to protect yourself.
On Friday, December 13, the State of Rhode Island informed the public about a major cyber-security threat to the RIBridges system. RIBridges is the state’s system for administering many programs and benefits including Medicaid and SNAP. RIBridges is managed by a vendor, Deloitte, who is working with the State to address this concern.
The State and Deloitte confirmed that there is a high probability that a cybercriminal has obtained files with personally identifiable information of anyone who has received benefits from RIBridges.
If you receive benefits from the State, you are at risk and should take action now!
Updates from the State will be made available at https://admin.ri.gov/ribridges-alert.
Who is impacted?
The State has said that any individual who has received or applied for health coverage and/or health and human services programs or benefits could be impacted by this cybersecurity breach. The programs and benefits managed through the RIBridges system include but are not limited to:
- Medicaid
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
- Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP)
- Health coverage purchased through HealthSource RI
- Rhode Island Works (RIW)
- Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS)
- General Public Assistance (GPA) Program
The State and Deloitte has indicated that the information obtained by hackers may include names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, as well as certain banking information.
Take 3 Steps to Protect Yourself:
If you’ve received any benefits from the state your personal information may have been compromised, and the state is advising you to remain vigilant and monitor your accounts for any unauthorized activity. Take these three steps to protect yourself:
- Freeze your credit and/or placing a fraud alert through any of the three major credit bureaus. Visit https://www.usa.gov/credit-freeze for more information.
- Change any common or reused passwords to a new strong and unique one, especially for your bank account and email account that you use to access RIBridges. Using a safe and secure password manager is the most effective way to reduce risks of password misuse.
- Call your bank to ask what steps may be taken related to the security of your bank account.
Households that have had personal information compromised will receive a letter by mail from the State that explains how to access free credit monitoring.
A dedicated call center for impacted customers is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The toll-free hotline is 833-918-6603. The reference number for the Rhode Island incident is B137035. The call center is run by Experian and is multilingual.
Accessing Your Account/Benefits
RIBridges has been temporarily taken offline as the state works to address the threat. Customers will not be able to log into their account through the RIBridges portal or mobile app.
If you have questions about accessing your benefits, call the state’s dedicated call center listed above.
Interested in applying for benefits such as SNAP?
While the RIBridges system is down, Rhode Islanders seeking to apply for benefits can still submit a paper application. Access the Application for Assistance at https://dhs.ri.gov/apply-now and mail it to DHS or put it in in any of the secure drop boxes at DHS offices. Mail the completed application to RI Department of Human Services, P.O. Box 8709, Cranston, RI 02920-8787
