A state computer disk containing the Social Security numbers of nearly 1,400 people is missing, the state Department of Administration announced Friday.
The department said there was no evidence that any number had been misused or that the disk had fallen into the hands of an unauthorized person. It was working with the Rhode Island State Police to find the disk.
"We do not believe that it was stolen, we just believe it was misplaced at this point in time," said Melanie Marcaccio, the department's deputy personnel director. "We don't believe that individuals outside of the organization had any access to that data at any point in that time."
The majority of the 1,400 people affected are state employees whose Social Security numbers were kept in human resources records, Marcaccio said.
The information was discovered missing within the last two weeks when human resources staff members who had relocated from Providence to Cranston could not find the data on the server, officials said.
The DOA sent a letter Thursday to all those affected, telling them the disk was missing and urging them to put a fraud alert on their credit file so creditors would contact them before any new accounts opened or any existing accounts changed.