California Birth Records Found in Unsecure Location

Date: 5/6/2013

Number: 13-017

Contact: Anita Gore, Heather Bourbeau – (916) 440-7259

SACRAMENTO

A California Department of Public Health (CDPH) investigation has found that a reel containing images of 2,000 State of California Birth Records for 1974 was found in an unsecure location. These birth certificates contain names, addresses, Social Security numbers and some medical information.

CDPH has no evidence that this incident has resulted in any unauthorized use of this information. CDPH continues to collaborate with the California Highway Patrol in this investigation.

You may be impacted if:
• You were born or are a parent of a child born in 1974, in May, June, July, August or September

and

• You were born or your child was born in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter or Tehama counties

If you were not born or the parent of a child born during those five months in 1974 in one of the nine counties listed, your information was not on the film that was found.

“We regret that this information has been compromised,” said Dr. Ron Chapman, CDPH director and state health officer. “We take the breach of any personal information very seriously and are committed to improving our security systems.”

The CDPH Vital Records Issuance and Preservation Branch (VRIPB) maintains a permanent central registry of all birth, death, fetal death, stillbirth, marriage and dissolution records for vital events that occur in California.

If you were born in May, June, July, August or September of 1974 or were the parent of a child born during that time in any of the nine counties listed and have questions, please call (855) 737-1796, between 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, or email [email protected].

CDPH is recommending those who believe their information may be contained on the film place a fraud alert on their accounts with the three major U.S. credit reporting agencies, get copies of their credit reports, and take other appropriate steps to monitor and protect their identities.

To obtain a free credit report, please go to www.annualcreditreport.com. Complete the annual credit report request form and mail it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The toll free number is (877) 322-8228.