Personal data of welfare workers posted online

The personal information of employees of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) was breached.

How many victims? 100,000

What type of personal information? Full names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.

What happened? An unnamed third-party service provider stored the employees' personal information online, but the data was not password protected.

What was the response? The DCF sent letters to 100,000 child care workers asking them to monitor their accounts and place fraud alerts on their credit reports.

Details: While the sensitive data was vulnerable when it was online, it was not easily accessible through search engines. Letters were sent to victims.

Quote: “During the time the information was unprotected, there was only legitimate uses for that information, only legitimate uses conducted by the vendor,” said Kristi Gray, a spokeswoman for DCF.

Source: wftv.com, Channel 9 WFTV, “DCF warns child care workers of possible computer security breach,” May 2, 2012.