The U.S. Energy Department has warned about 4,000 current and former workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation that their personal information may have been compromised, after police found a 1996 list with workers' names and other information in a home during an unrelated investigation.
The discovery marks the second time in less than a week that the Energy Department has warned employees and its contractors' employees that their personal information may have been compromised.
Police in Yakima discovered the list while investigating an unrelated criminal matter, the Energy Department said, adding that the list included the names of people who worked for a former Hanford contractor, Westinghouse Hanford, who were transferring to Fluor Hanford or companies under contract to Fluor Hanford in 1996.
The Energy Department awarded Fluor Hanford the contract to clean up the highly contaminated nuclear site in December 1996.
The list also included workers' Social Security numbers and birthdates, as well as work titles, assignments and telephone numbers.
The department began notifying workers about the discovery Sunday. Employees at seven companies were warned to monitor their financial accounts and billing statements for any suspicious activity.
There was no indication that Hanford's computer network was compromised. The Energy Department and Fluor Hanford were working with law enforcement officials to determine how the list was obtained and why it was in the home, the Energy Department said in a statement Monday.
"We, along with Fluor, are taking this very seriously," said Karen Lutz, an Energy Department spokeswoman at the south-central Washington site. "Obviously, there's a concern to get the word out, because so many workers transfer to other contractors and other federal sites."
Also on Monday, Energy Department officials began contacting 1,502 individuals by phone to inform them that their Social Security numbers and other information might have been compromised when a hacker gained entry to a department computer system eight months ago.
The workers, mostly contract employees, worked for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous agency within the department that deals with the government's nuclear weapons programs.
The computer theft occurred last September, but Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and his deputy, Clay Sell, were not informed of it until last week. It was first publicly disclosed at a congressional hearing on Friday.
Following the Hanford report Monday, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., demanded corrective actions to ensure that federal employees' personal information remains secure.
"Today's news that the personal information of 4,000 Hanford workers has been floating around in the open shows that we still have a long way to go when it comes to keeping sensitive information out of the wrong hands," Cantwell said.
Workers from the following companies were urged to check their financial statements: Fluor Daniel Hanford, Lockheed Martin Hanford, Rust Federal Services of Hanford, B&W Hanford, Numatec Hanford, DynCorp Tri-Cities Services and Duke Engineering and Services Hanford.
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