Washington county mistakenly releases 460,000 partial SSNs
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A county in Washington inadvertently launched almost half 1,000,000 partial Social Safety Numbers when responding to a routine public data request in December, in keeping with county officers.
The Pierce County Auditor’s Workplace, which mistakenly launched the delicate knowledge, mentioned in a information launch that the human error was shortly noticed and that the one that acquired the SSN digits deleted them inside two hours. The requester had not requested for the private info.
“First let me say that I’m extremely sorry that this occurred,” Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer mentioned in assertion. Farmer added that this was not a focused hack, and that “we now have taken steps to make sure it doesn’t occur once more.”
The Social Safety quantity info was included in a routine request for publicly out there voter registration knowledge, which generally contains names, addresses and delivery dates. Personally identifiable info, together with Social Safety quantity info, which can be utilized to commit establish theft, is exempt from public disclosure.
In a Jan. 17 letter despatched to the 463,110 voters affected, Whitney Stevens, the general public data officer for the auditor’s workplace, apologized and outlined steps these impacted can take to guard their non-public info and monitor for fraud.
“We now have confirmed that there was no widespread dissemination of data and no retention or copying of the data by the requester,” Stevens saiid. “We encourage you, as at all times, to stay vigilant and monitor your account statements, insurance coverage transactions, and free credit score experiences for potential fraud and id theft, and promptly report any issues.”
In response to query from the The News Tribune, spokesperson for Pierce County Libby Catalinich mentioned the county is requiring info to be reviewed by a second worker earlier than it’s launched to the general public.
Catalinich didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from The Related Press.