DANVILLE, Va. (WSET) — The Danville Department of Social Services is urging SNAP recipients to take steps to protect their EBT cards following reports that benefits issued on Wednesday, July 1, were stolen through fraudulent scam activity.
According to the city, a significant number of SNAP recipients have reported unauthorized use of their benefits. The Virginia Department of Social Services is now investigating to determine the scope of the issue.
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Any SNAP recipient who believes their benefits were stolen should contact their local Social Services department immediately to report the incident and request a new EBT card.
To help prevent further theft, recipients are encouraged to use the lock/unlock feature available on EBT accounts.
IT & DATA SECURITY (MITIGATING THE “INSIDER THREAT”)
As seen in the TD Bank case, an employee with too much “access” can sell your customer data to syndicates.
- Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): Employees should only have access to the specific folders and databases required for their current task.
- Access Revocation: Have a “Termination Checklist” that ensures all digital access (Email, VPN, Banking) is revoked within 60 minutes of an employee resigning or being dismissed.
- System Logs & Audit Trails: Enable “Read/Write Logging” on your server. If a customer’s data is leaked, you need to know exactly which login accessed that record and at what time.
- Encryption at Rest: Ensure that sensitive files (like your customer ID numbers or payroll spreadsheets) are encrypted so that if a staff member copies them to a USB, they cannot be read.