[Dataloss] AZ city releases 300 SSN unintentionally

[Henry Brown]

http://www.yumasun.com/news/city_43177___article.html/missent_numbers.html

City workers' Social Security numbers missent

[...]
BY JOYCE LOBECK, SUN STAFF WRITER
[...]
The Social Security numbers of about 300 city of Yuma employees were 
"unintentionally released" in an e-mail sent to city administrative 
personnel earlier this week, The Sun learned Thursday.

  However, the error was quickly taken care of it and "every step was 
taken to delete, retract and protect the information," according to a 
letter sent to those employees who were affected.

  The e-mail was quickly removed from employee computers by the city's 
technology department, said Greg Hyland, city spokesman. In some cases, 
he said, the information was removed so quickly, some recipients didn't 
even receive or open the e-mail.

  "There is no evidence any the information left the confines of the 
city walls," he said.

  Hyland said the inadvertent e-mail contained the Social Security 
numbers of about 300 city employees out of the total 1,150 people who 
work for the city either full- or part-time.

  As a precaution, letters were sent to employees whose information was 
in the e-mail, advising them that they might want to contact credit 
reporting agencies to put a fraud alert on their credit reports.

  The letters also contained information on what steps the employees can 
take if they think their personal information was being misused.

[...]