Canyons School District officials are investigating the disappearance of a thumb drive that very likely contained the personal information of more than 6,000 current and recent employees.
The USB flash drive is believed to have contained employee addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. A district-level worker was using it to transfer data for apparently "legitimate," job-related purposes, said district spokeswoman Jennifer Toomer-Cook. "At this point, we have no reason to believe the information was stolen or used to perpetuate fraud or identity theft."
As a precaution, district officials mailed letters to people whose information may be compromised, referring them to a state Web site for requesting a 90-day fraud alert or credit freeze: http://idtheft.utah.gov.
The letter was mailed Friday, two days after the security breach was reported by the employee believed responsible. That person has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
The district reported the incident to police. But absent evidence of foul play, police have no plans to investigate.
The district is taking steps to safeguard sensitive information, developing new policies and procedures and building a secure network for file transfers.
Such assurances come as small comfort to Margot McCallum, a teacher at Eastmont Middle School in Sandy.
"ID theft is the designer crime of the day. Of all the people to trust with my information, my employer is paramount. So, yes, I am concerned," said McCallum.
Canyons is Utah's newest school district. It was created in 2007 when residents in five communities voted to break from Jordan School District and form their own.
Canyons went live on July 1, but much is still in flux. Central office staff are now moving from temporary headquarters to their permanent home at Jordan's old offices.
Technical staff have been working "feverishly" to wire offices and install computers and phones, said Toomer-Cook. Though they inherited Jordan's servers, they must rebuild them to house e-mail and Web systems.
"Jordan, unbeknownst to us, wiped clean the server ... which put us at a tremendous disadvantage," said Toomer-Cook.
Later this month, Jordan will transfer student records and payroll information to the Canyons.
But Canyons Superintendent David Doty said the data mishap is no reflection on the district's readiness and technical capabilities.
"This incident has nothing to do with our IT department," said Doty. "This is not an IT breach. We have full confidence in our IT staff. They are on track to have services ready for schools."
