14 DAY TRIAL // The Office of the Texas Comptroller has fired its Information Security chief and three other employees, including the head of Innovation and Technology, following a data breach that exposed the personal information of 3.5 million people.
On March 21, the office discovered that data sets sent by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) and the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS), have been kept for over a year on a publicly accessible server.
The exposed records contained names, mailing addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, Social Security numbers, in other words personally identifiable information (PII), of Texas residents.
The data breach was publicly announced on April 11, when the office began notifying the affected individuals. The office negotiated a discount of the credit monitoring fee with Experian, which people can benefit from by using a promotional code.
The subsequent investigation into the incident determined that several internal procedures weren't followed, including a failure to delete the data after being used.
"[...] The head of Innovation and Technology and the head of Information Security are no longer employed at the Comptroller’s office. In addition, two other employees were let go after the data exposure was discovered," the office announced.
In addition to firing the responsible employees, Gartner and Deloitte, two information technology consultancy firms, were contracted to audit the office's security policy and suggest improvements.
"I deeply regret that personal data and public trust have been compromised," said Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. "We are working diligently to help affected individuals protect themselves against potential abuse of their personal information and to ensure that this type of data exposure never happens again," she added.
A special website with additional information about the incident has been set up at www.TXSafeguard.org and a toll-free phone line is available at 1-855-474-2065.