HUD Notifies 757 Employees of Personal Data
on Unaccounted for Disk
Offers Free Credit Monitoring As a Precaution

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Office of the Inspector General today announced a comprehensive review to determine the whereabouts, or confirm the destruction, of a backup Zip disk containing the personal information of 757 current and former HUD employees. The password protected disk, which required specialized software and hardware to access the data, is unaccounted for, but is thought to have been destroyed during a recent and routine computer upgrade that replaced virtually every computer within the agency.

In the interest of protecting its potentially affected employees, and out of an abundance of caution, on July 3, HUD began sending individual notification letters to potentially affected employees including the offer of free credit monitoring for a one-year period. HUD expects the notification process to be completed within the next several weeks, since some of the potentially affected employees no longer work for the agency.

The password-protected backup disk contains personal data of the potentially affected employees, including names, social security numbers, and summary human resources and personnel data. There is no evidence the disk was misappropriated or stolen or that the information has been accessed or misused. HUD has the data stored on a secured network, so no data was lost. Based on initial searches, and an initial review of the situation, HUD officials believe it is unlikely the disk was removed from its headquarters building in Washington D.C. Officials believe the disk may have been destroyed during the computer upgrade project. Other disks found in outdated computers during the computer upgrade are customarily destroyed.

HUD sincerely regrets any inconvenience that this situation may cause the potentially affected employees. The agency is fully committed to ensuring the security and safety of all employee and sensitive data. We have established a hotline at 1-800-795-6972 Ext. 2850 to address questions on the situation.

HUD will provide employees with updates on this situation as new information is learned.

 
Last modified: July 3, 2006
Content Archived: August 18, 2010