New Salt Lake City school district loses flash drive
A flash drive containing the personal information of employees recently went missing from Canyons School District in Salt Lake City.How many victims? 6,000.
What type of personal information? Addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
What happened? An employee was using the flash drive to transfer the information for job-related purposes, district spokeswoman Jennifer Toomer-Cook told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Details: The Canyons school district is new; it was established in 2007 and officially started up this July. Employees are currently in the process of moving from temporary headquarters to their permanent location. Technical staff are working to wire offices and install computers and phones, Toomer-Cook said.
The employee who lost the flash drive notified school officials and was placed on paid leave for the time being because an internal investigation is underway.
Quote: "At this point, we have no reason to believe the information was stolen or used to perpetuate fraud or identity theft," Toomer-Cook said.
What was the response? Notification letters were sent to affected individuals and police were notified but are not investigating because there is no indication of foul play. The district is reportedly developing new policies and procedures to ensure sensitive information is safeguarded in the future. In addition, it is building a secure network for file transfers.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com, The Salt Lake Tribune, “Canyons School District: Sorry about that missing employee info,” July 17, 2009.
