The county department that has helped more than 60,000 families in need in New Hanover County, now needs the help of the Sheriff’s Office.
A laptop used to access confidential family information was stolen from one of the Department of Social Services social workers.
114 social workers throughout the county carry laptops so they can travel to their clients and have easy access to their paperwork.
According to the police report, on Monday afternoon, a laptop was stolen out of the woman’s car because she had left her doors unlocked.
Now you may be thinking what I initially thought about what we’d hear next, but you’d be wrong. It turns out that there was better security than we might have expected:
Nesmith says client information is only kept on a central online database and is only accessible with their air card and password. Even employees cannot access the entire database, only information specific to their jobs and clients.
“We are very concerned about their information being protected and I assure them that we are following county protocol, that’s our job!” said Nesmith.
Privacy protocol includes never storing confidential files-such as Word or Excel documents containing client information-on the desktop.
The employee told her supervisor she followed the rules and the computer should be completely secure.
If true, that would be a pleasant change from what I expected to read.
Read more on WECT6.