MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett met with City Attorney Grant Langley on Monday, November 18th to discuss how to deal with a serious privacy breach that affects thousands of city employees. Some 6,000 city employees had private information, including their social security numbers stolen.
It happened back on October 22nd, when an employee of Dynacare Laboratories -- a healthcare company that contracts with the city to handle the "wellness" program left a flash drive in a car. The car was stolen, along with the flash drive.
"It's a very serious matter. We feel there has been a very serious breach of security," Mayor Barrett said.
Milwaukee police are investigating, and so far, the car has been recovered, but not the flash drive. However, it is unclear whether the information has been misused.
"We don't know where this flash drive is -- if it's in a dumpster somewhere or if it's being used," Mayor Barrett said.
On Monday, Dynacare officials sent a letter to those affected saying: "We have no reason to believe that the flash drive was taken for the information it contained."
Also, that they have set up "a dedicated call center for patients," and that they "deeply regret any inconvenience," and that the company will be "conducting a comprehensive internal review."
The flash drive contained names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers and the genders of the employees who participate in the wellness program -- which constitutes 90% of city employees, including the mayor.
"This is something we are very angry about that should never have happened," Mayor Barrett said.
The incident also affects a group of patients who received testing from Dynacare Laboratories between August and October of 2013.