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By George Pawlaczyk
News-Democrat
The discovery last week of clients' personal documents in a
trash bin outside the state job office's headquarters in
Springfield has resulted in still another revision of the
department's shredding policy.
"(The Illinois Department of Employment Security) has issued a
directive superseding its existing policy regarding the disposal of
confidential material," department spokesman Geraldine Conrad said
Monday.
The new policy includes naming specific staffers at field offices
responsible for shredding.
But Conrad said the News-Democrat's discovery on Wednesday of
personal records in a Springfield trash bin and similar
documents found more than a week earlier outside the Belleville
employment office were not evidence of a widespread problem.
"The two security breaches, fortunately, appear to have been very
limited in scope," Conrad said in a statement issued Monday.
"We have taken immediate action designed to ensure there are no
recurrences," she said.
All confidential material containing sensitive data such as
Social Security numbers, names, addresses, telephone numbers and
birth dates will be "held in a secure place until it is picked up
for shredding or disposal by an approved alternative."
For years the employment department, like other state agencies,
has had a general policy requiring that personal documents be
shredded to prevent identity theft, one of the state's fastest
growing crimes.
When the newspaper printed an article on April 24 concerning the
discovery of personal records in trash bins for metro-east
state and county offices, officials at these places promised a
crackdown on shredding.
St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern quickly sent directives to
county offices reminding that personal records must first be
shredded before disposal.
Brenda A. Russell, director of the state employment department,
apologized for the lapses that resulted in numerous records being
found at the Belleville jobs office at 4519 W. Main St. two weeks
ago, and then launched a statewide review of shredding policy.
A day after the review was announced, a reporter found personal
records for two clients of the employment office in the trash
bin a few feet from the front door at state headquarters.
Conrad, the state spokesman, said she was certain that the two
instances of records being found were all that existed because
senior managers have, "Had conversations with people in their
offices." She said she does not believe that local offices checked
their outside trash bins for personal records.
Contact reporter George Pawlaczyk at gpawlaczykbnd.com and
239-2625.
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