Cyberattack suspected in Conduent service outage affecting multiple US states

An ongoing service interruption at Conduent, a prominent government contractor, has disrupted critical services across several U.S. states, affecting residents’ access to benefits and support payments. While the company has refrained from confirming the cause of the outage, sources close to the situation have indicated that a cyberattack may be responsible.

Conduent spokesperson Sean Collins acknowledged the outage, stating, "We are currently experiencing a service interruption affecting some applications while we have restored service over the past few days. The Conduent technology team is working hard to resolve any remaining issues." However, Collins declined to elaborate or confirm whether the incident was a cyberattack.

The disruption has had widespread consequences. In Wisconsin, the Department of Children and Families reported an inability to process child support payments statewide for much of the week. On January 19, the department confirmed that its services were restored but directed questions about the cause of the outage to Conduent. Department spokesperson Gina Paige noted that Wisconsin was one of four states impacted by the service interruption.

Similarly, Oklahoma Human Services experienced disruptions linked to Conduent’s customer service operations. The department’s January 9 social media post attributed the interruption to a "technical outage." However, Oklahoma spokesperson Casey White confirmed that the state’s systems are now functioning normally and stated, "We experienced no outages related to security at Conduent."

The situation has drawn comparisons to a previous security incident at Conduent. In June 2020, the company was the target of a ransomware attack by the Maze group, which published stolen documents after Conduent reported a service interruption. This history has heightened speculation about the potential causes of the current disruption.