SAVANNAH, Ga. () — A number of Georgia EBT cardholders are still encountering issues with using their cards following a cyberattack targeting a call center in late July.
“I am retired and on a fixed income I can’t afford to buy food because I don’t have any cash,” a viewer wrote into Tuesday.
The attack shut down the Georgia’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system on July 28.
Nearly a month later, some EBT cardholders in Chatham County are still reporting issues accessing their funds.
“Money is on the card, but when going to the grocery store, it’s unusable. It will either show as invalid or report a lost card,” one viewer shared through an email to the news outlet.
Chatham County DFACS confirmed to that they were having issues due to the cyberattack.
Previously, many SNAP cardholders relied on the IVR call system to monitor their account balances and card transactions. Following the attack, the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children Services (DFACS) recommended that cardholders download the ConnectEBT app on their devices and secure their cards.
Since August 5, they haven’t released any additional public statements on their website. NBC’s 11Alive in Atlanta indicated that new cards were supposed to be issued to users, but some of these new cards are also facing functionality problems.
With the call center still non-operational, there is an alert on DHS’s website advising clients who need assistance with their card to reach out to the DHS Customer Contact Center at 1-877-423-4746 or email DHS Constituent Services at customerservicedhs@dhs.ga.gov.
DFACS also mentioned that cardholders who face difficulty accessing the app can log in to their account via the ConnectEBT website to manage locking and unlocking their cards, reset their password, and register for an account.
