Publication: KPIX-TV/CBS 5
There has been a new development in a series of massive hacks at California’s unemployment department that KPIX 5 first exposed. Now, attention is shifting from the state to Bank of America that distributes most of the money, at last count $105 billion dollars, through debit cards we discovered are vulnerable to hacks. KPIX has received more than a hundred emails from victims. Now lawmakers are taking notice.
From a criminal’s perspective, it’s the perfect scenario: ATMs give out bills and cash is king in the underground economy. KPIX was the first to expose how fraudsters are hacking Employment Development Department (EDD) debit cards and wiping out the benefits of potentially tens of thousands of Californians.
“This is just absolutely unacceptable, that we have a bank that’s not responding. They’re not responding to you. Not responding to me, not responding to the people who they are serving,” said California Assemblyman Phillip Ting.
That was Assemblyman Ting’s first reaction, after watching our reports about rampant hack attacks on debit cards issued by Bank of America, the Employment Development Department’s exclusive debit card provider.