School District spokesperson Joe Donzelli said, “It was discovered that social security numbers, addresses, and other information were all accessible on a classroom computer.”
Hundreds of Lee County students are learning this week their sensitive information could have been leaked.
Mary Escobar is one of more than 1,200 GED program students who received letters from the district, alerting them their information could be compromised.
“I was just shocked. I was thrown back,” Escobar said. “People get their identity stolen every day. Identity theft is a real big thing.”
District spokesperson Donzelli said the security breach was discovered when a GED student found a file containing the information on a classroom computer.
“The information was accessed by a student who, within three to five minutes, told his teacher about it,” Donzelli says.
Donzelli said he is unsure how the file became available on the computer but says it was immediately removed. The district does not believe the information ever left the room.
“They were not connected to a printer, so nothing could be printed out,” Donzelli said. “There were no email archives or data trails of emails sent from those computers.”
According to Donzelli, the school district is now triple-checking computers before they are issued to students. The district will notify the IRS of the situation and encourages students who received letters to place a fraud alert on their credit file.
“Social security numbers, birthdays, addresses, names, marital statuses. That’s enough to do somebody some harm,” Escobar said.