The U.S. Department of Labor has announced awards totaling $9,556,068 that will go to 29 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands to improve unemployment insurance information technology contingency plans and unemployment insurance IT security. This year is the sixth that the department has awarded these grants. The U.S.V.I. will receive $200,000.
The purpose of the grants is to encourage states to use the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s guidelines to enhance, augment and secure the UI systems, and ultimately achieve security certification and accreditation of UI systems. These grants also will improve IT contingency planning weaknesses identified in the states’ UI-IT contingency plan audits, which are conducted by the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General.
“Data security improvements implemented with the help of these funds will strengthen the integrity of our state unemployment insurance systems,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Jane Oates. “Tax-paying workers and employers expect states to continuously improve the performance of their UI systems, and these funds will help ensure that those improvements take place.”