Indianapolis' ISA Disclosed Personal Information On IndyGov Website

The Information Services Agency (ISA) for the City of Indianapolis has issued a press release announcing that personal information, including social security numbers, dates of birth, gender and race information, for 3,300 persons charged with minor offenses during the 2006-07 period was inadvertently made available for public viewing on the IndyGov website. Letters have been mailed to those affected by the disclosure. The press release states:

ISA learned late last week that a spreadsheet containing personal information for approximately 3,300 individuals charged with minor offenses during 2006 and 2007 was made available on the indygov.org website. The file was immediately removed from the website, and as an added precaution, the website was restored back to an earlier version until ISA could fully correct the problem.

The data made available was originally compiled to gather statistical support for a drug treatment program grant application. It included full names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, gender and race information. Letters with detailed information about the disclosure will be mailed the week of October 13, 2008 to the last-known address of every person whose information was posted.

Additionally, ISA notified law enforcement of the incident and established a hotline at 317-327-5001 to answer questions and address concerns. Since the error was discovered, ISA has been working with an independent consultant to identify additional precautions that can be taken to prevent this type of disclosure.

"This is an unfortunate example of human error; however, once we discovered that personal information was posted, ISA took aggressive action to correct the problem, to notify the affected individuals and to prevent this type of disclosure from happening again," said Kevin Ortell, Interim Chief Information Officer for ISA.

ISA is encouraging those with questions or concerns to contact the ISA hotline at 317-327-5001. Individuals whose information was released are also encouraged to monitor their credit reports by visiting http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ or by calling 1-877-322-8228. Also as a precaution, an identity theft victim information kit can be obtained from the Indiana State Attorney General's office by visiting http://www.indianaconsumer.com/.