Data Breach Sunday: Ground Zero Workers Potential Identity Theft Victims

April 27, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or get new posts via email. Thanks for visiting!

Workers at the World Trade Centre in New York, or “Ground Zero”, have had to put up with a lot - difficult work conditions, bad air, and now exposure to identity theft.

Some binners found a bunch of payroll documents in a garbage can behind 115 Broadway. The union attendance sheets listed names and Social Security Numbers for workers who cleared the debris from Ground Zero back in 2003.

Luckily, the people who found these particular documents didn’t do anything nefarious (that we know of), but instead turned them over to the New York Post. Who knows how long this trashing of documents has gone on though.

Needless to say, WTC workers are not impressed. Here is a quote from the paper:

“The documents should have been shredded. They shouldn’t have been put in the Dumpster like that,” said a worker for the Dockbuilders Union who helped shore up the retaining wall that holds back the Hudson River.

“I’m not happy that my Social Security [number] was in the garbage,” he said, asking that his name not be printed. “At the very least, they have companies that come to do the job of shredding documents.”

Identity theft is not the only threat that the documents posed:

Included in the stash were blueprints for World Trade Center 4 and the temporary PATH station, construction specifications for World Trade Center 7 and plans for the PA Police headquarters.

Needless to say, there is an “ongoing investigation” into who threw this away and how long it has been going on. This isn’t the first time we have posted about sensitive documents in the garbage, and I am sure it won’t be the last.

Source: New York Post

Related Posts

Posted in Data Breach Sunday, Identity Theft