Liberty, KY Business May Have Exposed 1,291 Students' Personal Info
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 15, 2008Media Contact: Aaron Titus
(202) 681-1686
LIBERTY, Kentucky. A former elementary school principal, and proprietor of Frysc Connect and Rick's Computer Enterprise in Liberty, Kentucky posted a file online which appeared to contain 2,377 names, including 1,291 of his former students' social security numbers, dates of birth, ethnicities, addresses, phone numbers, guardians' names and other personal information. Rick claimed that he scrambled names and other information so they no longer matched. Though some of the information had apparently been scrambled, much had not.
For example, the Liberty Coalition was able to contact a few students and parents on the list by calling home phone numbers listed, and some parents' names still matched children's names. Because the file had been used for years for training purposes, unfortunately there is no way to determine how much of the information had been scrambled.
Even if most of the information had been scrambled, it is alarming that educators have easy access to so much children's sensitive personal information, and that some feel free to copy it for their own use.
The file had been shared and used for more than six years to train school employees on his product called "The Ultimate FRC/YSC Toolkit," a software package designed to help school districts manage student personal information. All of the individuals affected by this breach live in the small town of Liberty, Kentucky. Parents who find their own names on ssnbreach.org, but fail to find one of their children's names, may assume that the child's record had been scrambled.
Individuals affected by this exposure should immediately visit www.nationalidwatch.org and search for their names, to confirm what types of personal information were exposed. NationalIDWatch.org has a list of recommended steps victims should take.
About NationalIDWatch.org
National ID Watch is a search engine for personal information breaches. Sponsored by the Washington, DC non-profit Liberty Coalition, NationalIDWatch.org provides more than a million free personalized Identity Exposure Reports™ as a public service.
Each Identity Exposure Report (IXR) documents what types of personal information were exposed (such as Social Security Numbers, Birth Dates, Addresses, etc.), without revealing them. Each IXR also details the situation surrounding each exposure, and contact information of those responsible for the breach. Armed with this information, victims can further investigate, take action, or correct harm.