Two Iowa Dept. of Human Services employees blamed for security breaches of more than 2,000 Iowans’ personal information.
The Iowa Department of Human Services announced Friday that there was a breach in personal information related to some Polk County social work assessments. There are 2,042 individuals whose information was included in the breach, which happened during the assessment period of some child and dependent adult abuse cases. Letters were mailed this week notifying these Iowans of the breach.
This occurred when two workers used personal email accounts, personal online storage accounts and personal electronic devices for work purposes. That caused confidential data to be transmitted outside the DHS secure network. The incidents happened over a 5-year period starting in 2008.
The types of information involved included name, mailing address, Social Security number, state identification number, date of birth, health information and incident information.
The department began an internal investigation on January 17, 2014, once the issue was identified by a social work supervisor. Officials found that the workers did not follow DHS policy, which prohibits use of personal devices and transmitting information outside of the agency’s network.
