Breach, Data Security

Court employee compromises personal info of Washington state residents

The personal information of more than 3,000 residents of Washington state was compromised after a temporary city court employee sent forms, background information and municipal court lists to her personal email.

How many victims? 3,600 

What type of personal information? Names, addresses and dates of birth.

What happened? A temporary municipal court clerk in Sumner, Wash., sent information about potential jurors and defendants to her personal email.  

What was the response? The city is sending affected individuals a letter, and has fired the employee. In addition, city officials, who revoked the employee's system access, will review her computers.

Details: Although the temporary employee had only worked nine days, she emailed the sensitive documents to herself in order to learn more about the job and the court system, according to The News Tribune. On December 16, a staff member noticed a sent email with a large amount of city data and immediately notified police.

Source: thenewstribune.com, “Sumner fires temporary court clerk for sending herself city data on 3,600 people,” Dec. 29, 2013.

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