For some teachers, summer vacation can’t come quickly enough.  For over 800 educators in Texas, this might be a summer they wish they could forget.  After an issue with insurance companies in the state and their policies of destroying confidential records, and the theft of personal information from one of the largest gas station chains in the state, now those who teach our children have to worry even more about their personal identity because they were following state laws.

It was reported yesterday that a lockbox containing the personal data was stolen from an office located inside a home in the community of Wichita Falls.  The name of the company is L-1 Identity Solutions.  It seems that the company will need to find its own solutions to prevent any future breaches from taking place at its offices.  According to a spokesman for the company, letters have been sent out in the mail to notify the people affected by the theft.  Unfortunately, those connected to this case have had their names, addresses, social security numbers, and license numbers stolen.  This is more than enough information for someone to assume the identity of another person.

A representative from the Association of Texas Professional Educators, Doug Rogers, noted that there have been concerns with the state’s policy about conducting background checks on teachers.  While there is no debate that parents should be confident in the safety of the instructor teaching their children, the methods used to conduct the checks need to be modified.  Thefts of this nature are what educators feared.  It appears that L-1 shared this concern and has laid out measures for future finger print screenings that do not require that material to be accompanied by mounds of private data.  No word has been issued on whether or not their proposal has been accepted.

In the letter that the company sent out to affected parties, they have promised to provide a year of identity theft insurance and credit report monitoring.  In other data breaches, the affected business has not been so upfront about the danger and has not provided similar guarantees.  In those cases, people turn toward companies, such as Lifelock, that provide ID theft subscriptions.  Lifelock and others provide monitoring services with all three credit bureaus.  Unlike some companies, Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian all are in touch with members of Lifelock’s staff.  These staff members alert their customers whenever a new credit card application or loan is filed in their name, actions frequently undertaken by criminals involved in identity theft.

As time goes on, more details about this case hope to be made available to the public.  L-1 will continue to look for new measures to insure the safety of their office locations, in addition to the material contained within.  As data breaches of this type become more common, state agencies will have to reevaluate their policies regarding background checks to ensure that those in compliance with the law are not inadvertently punished with the exposure of their private data.

Tags: lifelock

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Government Breaches, Individuals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.