Mailing error from Keller ISD affects students
Technorati Tag: Security Breach
Date Reported:
8/15/08
Organization:
Keller Independent School District ("Keller ISD")
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Students
Number Affected:
Unknown*
*Keller ISD has 32 campuses serving more than 28,000 students. (Source: Keller ISD About Us)
Types of Data:
"social security number, student ID number, home address, phone number and contact information" for parents at home and at work.
Breach Description:
Keller Independent School District recently mailed enrollment forms to students and parents for the 2008 - 2009 school year. Unfortunately, some of the forms containing sensitive personal information were mailed to the wrong people.
Reference URL:
The Keller Citizen
Report Credit:
Sandra Engelland, The Keller Citizen
Response:
From the online source cited above:
When the Silva family received a mailing from Keller High School last week, they didn’t think it would be anything unusual.
[Evan] I received this same type of information from my children's schools. Parents should question how schools protect their children's personal information more. Take the time to review the information you send and receive from schools. Our parents never had to worry much about Social Security numbers used at the schools we attended, but times have changed. An attentive parent can potentially protect their children from significant headaches down the road (assuming things don't change).
Upon opening it, Apollo and Marsha Silva found two enrollment forms.
One was an emergency-care authorization form for their son, Anthony, 15, an incoming sophomore.
But the other was a student-information form containing a classmate’s social security number, student ID number, home address, phone number and contact information for his parents at home and at work.
[Evan] Oops.
They quickly realized that their son’s private information, which they used to set up his college fund and other accounts, was mailed to someone else.
"It’s really disconcerting that it happened," said Apollo Silva, worried about the possibility of identity theft.
It is a fear shared by numerous other families who had their Keller High School students’ forms stuffed into envelopes and sent to addresses other their own.
The high school has received about 45 phone calls from families who received the wrong paperwork, a spokeswoman for the Keller school district said Tuesday.
[Evan] I wonder how many people were affected in total.
"We take this seriously, and as a district we are very careful to protect student information," said Shellie Johnson, the spokeswoman.
Officials discovered the problem soon after some of the letters were mailed Aug. 5
They hand-checked some 2,000 letters still at the district warehouse and found them to be correct.
[Evan] 2,000 letters out of somewhere around a potential 28,000 (assuming the mailings were district-wide). Don't most organizations that send out large mailings do it in batches? Maybe just a batch was wrong.
As a result of the mishap, officials decided to require a second set of eyes review all mailings which include student information, Johnson said.
High school officials said future mailings will not include social security numbers.
[Evan] Good call! If the information isn't needed, don't include it.
On pre-printed forms, the numbers will be blocked out.
[Evan] Another good call!
"There’s no reason for them to have [social security numbers] there when they use the student ID number for everything," said Kristen Signorelli, mother of Trey, a 15-year-old incoming sophomore whose form was mailed to the Silvas.
Commentary:
There are/were many thousands and maybe even millions of similar mailings going out to parents in the last few and coming few weeks. It would be great if these were the only ones that resulted in a breach. It would also be great if money grew on my trees.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Date Reported:8/15/08
Organization:
Keller Independent School District ("Keller ISD")
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Students
Number Affected:
Unknown*
*Keller ISD has 32 campuses serving more than 28,000 students. (Source: Keller ISD About Us)
Types of Data:
"social security number, student ID number, home address, phone number and contact information" for parents at home and at work.
Breach Description:
Keller Independent School District recently mailed enrollment forms to students and parents for the 2008 - 2009 school year. Unfortunately, some of the forms containing sensitive personal information were mailed to the wrong people.
Reference URL:
The Keller Citizen
Report Credit:
Sandra Engelland, The Keller Citizen
Response:
From the online source cited above:
When the Silva family received a mailing from Keller High School last week, they didn’t think it would be anything unusual.
[Evan] I received this same type of information from my children's schools. Parents should question how schools protect their children's personal information more. Take the time to review the information you send and receive from schools. Our parents never had to worry much about Social Security numbers used at the schools we attended, but times have changed. An attentive parent can potentially protect their children from significant headaches down the road (assuming things don't change).
Upon opening it, Apollo and Marsha Silva found two enrollment forms.
One was an emergency-care authorization form for their son, Anthony, 15, an incoming sophomore.
But the other was a student-information form containing a classmate’s social security number, student ID number, home address, phone number and contact information for his parents at home and at work.
[Evan] Oops.
They quickly realized that their son’s private information, which they used to set up his college fund and other accounts, was mailed to someone else.
"It’s really disconcerting that it happened," said Apollo Silva, worried about the possibility of identity theft.
It is a fear shared by numerous other families who had their Keller High School students’ forms stuffed into envelopes and sent to addresses other their own.
The high school has received about 45 phone calls from families who received the wrong paperwork, a spokeswoman for the Keller school district said Tuesday.
[Evan] I wonder how many people were affected in total.
"We take this seriously, and as a district we are very careful to protect student information," said Shellie Johnson, the spokeswoman.
Officials discovered the problem soon after some of the letters were mailed Aug. 5
They hand-checked some 2,000 letters still at the district warehouse and found them to be correct.
[Evan] 2,000 letters out of somewhere around a potential 28,000 (assuming the mailings were district-wide). Don't most organizations that send out large mailings do it in batches? Maybe just a batch was wrong.
As a result of the mishap, officials decided to require a second set of eyes review all mailings which include student information, Johnson said.
High school officials said future mailings will not include social security numbers.
[Evan] Good call! If the information isn't needed, don't include it.
On pre-printed forms, the numbers will be blocked out.
[Evan] Another good call!
"There’s no reason for them to have [social security numbers] there when they use the student ID number for everything," said Kristen Signorelli, mother of Trey, a 15-year-old incoming sophomore whose form was mailed to the Silvas.
Commentary:
There are/were many thousands and maybe even millions of similar mailings going out to parents in the last few and coming few weeks. It would be great if these were the only ones that resulted in a breach. It would also be great if money grew on my trees.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Posted by Evan Francen at 8/15/2008 11:33 AM 
Categories: Mailing Error, Keller Independent School District
Categories: Mailing Error, Keller Independent School District
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