The State Auditor’s Office recently finished sending notifications via email to more than 1.3 million Washingtonians — including many state employees — whose personal information was exposed in a recent data breach. Those affected by the breach include individuals who received unemployment benefits from the Employment Security Department in the 2017 to 2020 time period. The Auditor’s Office is offering one year of free credit monitoring and identity protection services through Experian to anyone affected by the data breach.

According to the Auditor’s Office, if you filed an unemployment claim last year, you should have received an official notification about the data breach from the Auditor’s Office. If you have not seen that notification in your email inbox, make sure to check your junk or spam folder.

The Auditor’s Office is legally required to notify you if your information was breached. 

If you filed an unemployment claim and after checking your email folders you still do not see an official notification, the Auditor’s Office has indicated that you can still sign up for Experian by going to the Auditor’s Office website and clicking on the section titled “How to obtain free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.” That section includes these instructions:

If You Did Not Receive an Email with a Personalized Activation Code by March 15, 2021, you can enroll in Experian’s credit monitoring by following these instructions:

  1. Visit www.experianidworks.com/3bcredit or call Experian directly to enroll in the program using the toll-free number: 1-833-256-3154
  2. You will need to provide the code: WSHAUD2021
  3. You will need to provide the engagement number: B009702
  4. Enrollment will be open until 6/6/2021