When her data was exposed, Kennedale woman cried foul — and the state listened

Dave Lieber reports:

Let’s all stand and cheer for Judy Yacio, a retired Kennedale school principal who struck a blow to stop identity theft. She exposed a flaw in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas that could make it easy for identity thieves to steal her personal banking information.

[…]

After Yacio switched the bank account to which her retirement check was to be directly deposited, she got a call from her credit union telling her that it had received a letter from TRS to confirm the change. But her personal information, the credit union told her, was clearly visible through the TRS envelope.

TRS had used a window-style envelope. Yacio’s name, address and account number were visible through the front window. Anyone who handled the letter could use that information to steal from her.