Marathon County, Wisconsin Purchase Card Program breach
Technorati Tag: Security Breach
Date Reported:
2/27/08
Organization:
Marathon County, Wisconsin
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
County employees
Number Affected:
270
Types of Data:
Names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth
Breach Description:
Marathon County officials inadvertently sent a file containing personal information belonging to employee participants of the "County-Wide Purchase Card Program" to the county's purchase card administrator, who was not authorized to receive such information.
Reference URL:
State of Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection breach notification
Report Credit:
State of Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection
Response:
From the online source cited above:
Marathon County has a data breach affecting approximately 270 county employees.
Some employees of Marathon County have been affected by an information breach that involves their County-Wide Purchase Card Program.
A file that contained names, social security numbers, and dates of births was sent to the County’s purchasing card administrator.
The purchase card administrator has deleted the employee social security numbers on the file at the request of the County.
The County has provided assistance through First Advantage Membership Services (FAMS).
[Evan] I had never heard of First Advantage Membership Services prior to this posting. Information about this company can be found at this link.
You may contact FAMS representative for more details at .
Commentary:
There is not much detail available surrounding the events that led to this breach. It appears as though this was a simple mistake. Any suggestions for improvement would be based on pure speculation.
Kudos to the county for reporting this breach when it could have easily been "swept under the rug".
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Date Reported:2/27/08
Organization:
Marathon County, Wisconsin
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
County employees
Number Affected:
270
Types of Data:
Names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth
Breach Description:
Marathon County officials inadvertently sent a file containing personal information belonging to employee participants of the "County-Wide Purchase Card Program" to the county's purchase card administrator, who was not authorized to receive such information.
Reference URL:
State of Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection breach notification
Report Credit:
State of Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection
Response:
From the online source cited above:
Marathon County has a data breach affecting approximately 270 county employees.
Some employees of Marathon County have been affected by an information breach that involves their County-Wide Purchase Card Program.
A file that contained names, social security numbers, and dates of births was sent to the County’s purchasing card administrator.
The purchase card administrator has deleted the employee social security numbers on the file at the request of the County.
The County has provided assistance through First Advantage Membership Services (FAMS).
[Evan] I had never heard of First Advantage Membership Services prior to this posting. Information about this company can be found at this link.
You may contact FAMS representative for more details at .
Commentary:
There is not much detail available surrounding the events that led to this breach. It appears as though this was a simple mistake. Any suggestions for improvement would be based on pure speculation.
Kudos to the county for reporting this breach when it could have easily been "swept under the rug".
Past Breaches:
Unknown
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