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Jul. 04, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Juror data breach is reported

By ANTONIO PLANAS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

In a District Court security breach, a contracted vendor released personal information on about 380 potential jurors to an employee's private e-mail address, court officials said Thursday.

Clark County court officials said the people affected were notified by letters sent out Monday. Court officials did not specify whether the breach was intentional or accidental. They also didn't specify when the incident occurred.

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    • The information was transferred from the printing company that prepares jury summons notices to an unidentified employee's e-mail account.

    The information provided to the e-mail account could have included names, addresses, social security numbers and birth dates. After reviewing the matter, court officials determined much of the personal information released was incomplete.

    The 380 people affected represented only a fraction of the 1.7 million people who make up the jury summons list, court officials said.

    In the letters sent to those affected, the court suggested individuals obtain credit reports to determine whether any unauthorized activity occurred. Court officials said affected individuals could request that an initial free alert be placed on their credit files by calling any one of three national credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian or TransUnion.

    Court officials said they have since removed all personal identifiers from the jury summons list such as birth dates and social security numbers. Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies were notified of the security breach and are investigating. The private vendor is cooperating with the investigation, court officials said.

    Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.

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    Juror exposed wrote on July 04, 2008 02:39 PM: So I read the article above this morning, walked out to get yesterday's mail a little later . . . and my letter arrived. They "regret any inconvenience that this may cause."

    The employee mailed it to her own e-mail account.

    My wife went through something similar a decade ago. Let the nightmare begin. Again.


    Eric Nelson wrote on July 04, 2008 12:40 PM: Mishandling of private information by contractors or other third party service providers is one of the leading causes of loss or stolen data.

    Billing records of 2.2 million patients at the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics were recently stolen from a vehicle after a courier failed to immediately take them to a storage center, Bank of NY Mellon had two data breaches with two weeks due to third party providers, and there have been numerous reports affecting hundreds of thousands of individuals relating to lost or stolen data from benefits and health care providers.

    The Clark County court officials are to blame for not having proper processes in place, e.g., redaction of SSN's, birthdates, etc.

    They should be ashamed of trying to downplay the potential impact by stating that "only" 380 out of 1.7 million prospective jurors are affected.

    The County and the vendor are required under a number of federal and possibly state laws to have appropriate processes and safeguards in place. To downplay their mistakes and throw all the follow up responsibility to the 380 individuals is reprehensible.

    Thanks to the individuals for doing their civic duty as well as paying their taxes so the individual responsible for this breach will probably get a performance raise next year.

    Eric Nelson
    President
    Secure Privacy Solutions


    slm wrote on July 04, 2008 12:13 PM: The 380 people affected represented only a fraction of the 1.7 million people who make up the jury summons list, court officials said.

    "ONLY A FRACTION" what's that suppose to mean?????

    ...is that like being a little bit pregnant?


    Cynical again wrote on July 04, 2008 10:24 AM: re: Court officials did not specify...

    I'm with you, ML.
    Well said. My thoughts exactly.


    Oliver wrote on July 04, 2008 08:02 AM: Another fine job at the Regional Justice Center


    ml wrote on July 04, 2008 07:33 AM: re: Court officials did not specify whether the breach was intentional or accidental.

    I don't know. I am not a genius, and I don't play one on television, but I think I might be able to figure that one out. Let's see. A bunch of confidential information which includes Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers just happens to be transferred to an employee's email account. I could be wrong, but my guess is that the breach was NOT accidental.