The problem stems from seniors’ inability to activate their new SNAP cards after the cyber incident crippled the call center.
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — More than two months after a cyber incident on Georgia’s SNAP call center, some of the state’s most vulnerable residents still can’t access the food benefits they rely on.
11Alive News Investigates was first to break the news of the July 28 incident, where bots flooded the call system in what’s referred to as a brute force attack. Concerned that accounts might have been compromised, Georgia Department of Human Services leaders called for EBT vendor Conduent to shut down the call center as well as lock and reissue thousands of impacted benefit cards over fears of theft.
Internal DHS emails show growing concern about disruptions for SNAP families, who typically rely on the call center to access their card balance and monitor transactions. In those exchanges, Commissioner Candice Broce repeatedly urged the creation of a dedicated help line where recipients could contact Conduent for help with their cards as the call center remained offline.
RELATED: ‘They are going to go hungry:’ DHS emails show officials’ alarm, fury after SNAP disruption
Months later, problems persist.
Stephanie Smith is a service coordinator in Cobb County and reached out to 11Alive on behalf of more than a dozen seniors she works with, who she says are living alone and already stretched thin.
“They’ve depleted their savings and exhausted every local food pantry available,” Smith said. “The situation is made worse by the fact that most of them live alone without support, have no internet access, and cannot navigate online systems for help.”
The result is a crisis playing out behind closed doors, she said, where seniors have few resources left.
The problem stems from seniors’ inability to activate their new SNAP cards after the cyber incident crippled the call center. SNAP recipients were instructed to activate or unlock their cards via a special app and website known as ConnectEBT. 11Alive has repeatedly reported on the struggles of those who say the instructions are insufficient or don’t work. As the call center remained down, families had no way of reaching Conduent for help.
RELATED: ‘It’s not OK’: Families still locked out of SNAP benefits a month after Georgia cyberattack
“We have followed every process outlined by DFCS and the Georgia Gateway system,” Smith said. “We have received no response in over a month. These are seniors who’ve worked hard their entire lives, and now they are quietly going hungry in their homes because of a failure in the system.”
For Smith, the issue is personal.
“Every single day that I come to work, these residents here are like my grandmother or my grandfather,” she said. “Our seniors deserve to be seen and heard. They need action, not silence.”
11Alive News Investigates has pressed Conduent, which has not publicly referred to the incident as a cyberattack, for a timeline on when residents can expect callbacks or resolution. The company continues to refer all questions back to the state.
To date, the state has not clarified how many SNAP households were impacted by the July 28 incident, nor whether any theft occurred as a result. In a new statement, the Georgia Department of Human Services said:
“With our legal partners in the Attorney General’s Office, we’re reviewing our contract with the vendor and exploring what options are available to ensure we hold them accountable and can continue to serve our clients to the best of our ability.”
