Our hero Benjamin Franklin

In yet another demonstration of “open” government, the State of Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation accidentally provided access to 250,000 social security numbers. The social security numbers remained available for 19 days.

“We are committed to serving the people of Florida and to maintaining the public trust at its highest level,” said Monesia T. Brown, Director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation.  “We are thoroughly investigating this matter and are making every effort to enhance the security of our computer systems.”

The security breach occurred on an Agency test server for 19 days in October 2008 and resulted in the exposure of the names and Social Security Numbers of approximately 250,000 customers who received services through Florida’s One-Stop Career Centers between January 2002 and November 2007.

If you want to check to see if your information was included in the affected data, you should visit: https://www.floridajobs.org/security/security.htm. However to add insult to injury, you will need to provide your name, email, phone number, and last 4 digits of your social security number.

The State will be notifying those affected by mail. Perhaps the workers involved received their training from the University of Florida…