The San Diego County Office of Education recently notified component districts that some employee retirement contribution data had been incorrectly shared with districts. From their notification:
What Happened? On December 5, 2017, a San Diego County Office of Education (“SDCOE”) employee inadvertently sent an employee retirement contribution spreadsheet, containing employee name, Social Security number, and funding amount, to SDCOE’s retirement contribution contacts at forty-four (44) school districts throughout the Southern California area. This information was received by SDCOE from Empower Retirement in the course of overseeing retirement deductions for employees, and sent by SDCOE in connection with alerting school districts of certain retirement plan participants nearing the maximum contribution amount for 2017.
What Information Was Involved? The spreadsheet contained the names, Social Security numbers, age, and retirement account contribution information for certain participants in your retirement plan. Impacted individuals affiliated with your organization are identified in the document attached as Exhibit A.
What is SCDOE Doing? SDCOE discovered this incident on [date]. Upon learning of this incident, SDCOE immediately launched an internal investigation into the incident and attempted to recall the email. We request that you securely and permanently delete this email from the email accounts and information systems at your organization.
We understand [district] is the owner of this data and may be required pursuant to laws of the states of residence of the employees and/or contract to take certain steps to disclose this incident to its impacted individuals. SCDOE understands this event may be concerning, and takes the security of information in its possession and control seriously. As such, SDCOE will provide, on behalf of [district], notification to those [district] retirement plan participants whose information was inadvertently emailed to another school, and any state regulators and consumer reporting agencies required by law. SDCOE will also offer impacted employees access to 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity restoration services.
What Can You Do? SCDOE does not have current address information for impacted individuals. SCDOE requests that you provide address information for the impacted individuals no later than January 5, 2018. Please note that we cannot mail letters to your impacted individuals until you provide us with the address information. Understanding you may receive inquiries directly from or provide separate notice to your participants, we will provide you with the notification mailing date and a set of Frequently Asked Questions for use in responding to inquiries you may receive regarding this incident.
For More Information. We understand you may have questions that are not addressed in this communication. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at [email address] or [phone number] with any question or concerns.
Sincerely,
[Name]
[Title]
Is this bizarre?
I don’t see it as bizarre. To me, it’s just another human error gaffe that wasn’t prevented by systems and technical safeguards.