The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development is reporting that a worm could have operated unhampered in its network for three-and-a-half weeks before being purged.

During that time documents about unemployed residents that were filed by 1,200 employers were vulnerable, the office says.

IMPACT:

"This information may include names, Social Security Numbers, Employer Identification Numbers, email addresses and residential or business addresses. It is possible that bank information of employers was also transmitted through the virus," according to a statement issued by the office.

The worm, W32.Qakbot, was discovered April 20 on an unspecified number of EOLWD computers, and the agency believed it had removed it from the network that day. It was rediscovered Monday and the office says it is now cleaned from the network.