State agencies failed to remove personal and confidential information about New Jersey residents from computers bound for public auction, according to a report.
New Jersey State Comptroller Matthew Boxer said intervention by auditors in his office prevented the unlawful disclosure of Social Security numbers, health records and child abuse documents.
"At a time when identity theft is all too common, the State must take better precautions so it doesn’t end up auctioning off taxpayers’ Social Security numbers and health records to the highest bidder," Boxer said in a statement.
The computers were packaged for disposal by auction or donation at the State's surplus property warehouse. State guidelines require all data be removed from a computer's hard drive before sending it to the warehouse.
A report released on Wednesday said OSC auditors found data on 79 percent of the computers sampled at the warehouse, with confidential or personal information contained on nearly a third of them.
The data recovered at the State warehouse included:
- A list of state-supervised children, including dates of birth and Medicaid numbers
- Numerous files belonging to a state judge, including the judge’s life insurance trust agreement, tax returns, mortgage information and more
- Social Security numbers of state employees and regular people
- Personal passwords, etc.
Officials said the State issued an interim policy requiring agencies to remove all hard drives from computers sent for redistribution, until a permanent policy is developed.
Politics
The State comptroller's office said the audit report made 10 new recommendations to state officials for improving data security procedures concerning surplus computer equipment.
