City officials said they were notifying employees that social security numbers were mistakenly disclosed in response to a freedom of information request. The city is attempting to get legal assurances that the recipient will not disclose the numbers, City Manager Scott Pickup told lohud.com.
Pickup said that the social security numbers were included in the payroll data that was disclosed; he was not sure how many employees were affected.
Franco Campagnone, head of the Rye Police Benevolent Association, said he was notified by the firefighters union about the breach. “If you’re releasing that type of information, wouldn’t somebody catch that maybe we should redact the Social Security numbers?” he said.
According to the laus deo blog, social security numbers of around 150 employees and possibly retirees were disclosed, citing the recipient of the information as the source. The blog said that Pickup was notified of the breach within minutes of the data’s release on Feb. 3 but failed to notify city employees in a timely fashion.
According to the blog, the city manager confirmed that there was a delay in notification of the breach. “A full notification will be made to all potential parties next week. Department Heads were notified of this issue, and encouraged to share with employees at the staff meting [sic] on Thursday", he told the blog on Feb. 10.