Alan Gustafson reports:
A state inquiry is under way to determine whether two state agencies broke Oregon law by dumping records with people’s names and Social Security numbers into an open recycling bin.
Regulators with the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services are checking for violations of the Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act, officials said.
The inquiry follows last Sunday’s story in the Statesman Journal, which described mishandling of confidential records by Oregon Housing and Consumer Services and state Parks and Recreation.
[…]
The newspaper previously reported that confidential records discarded by the housing agency left peoples’ names, Social Security numbers, ages and addresses exposed in a recycling bin outside the North Mall Office Building in central Salem.
The blunder put about 20 low-income, elderly and disabled Oregonians at risk of becoming targets of identity theft.
In a similar security lapse, confidential records with the names and Social Security numbers of former state parks and recreation employees ended up in the recycling bin.
[…]
Based on an internal review, Havel said Friday that the [Parks and Recreation] agency’s security breach “was caused by one temporary employee who made a mistake (when cleaning) by taking a pile of documents to the wrong bin in violation of our procedures.”
Read more in the Statesman Journal.