On Sunday, Delaware public health officials announced that the personal details of thousands of individuals who were screened for coronavirus this summer were accidentally shared with an unknown user.
The Public Health Division of the State said the data loss occurred when a member of the temporary team submitted two unencrypted emails in August that contained files containing 10,000 people’s test scores, addresses, birth dates and phone numbers. The files did not contain financial records, said the Delaware State News.
The emails were supposed to be circulated among call centre workers who assist individuals receive their test reports, but it was sent by accident by the temporary department staff to an unauthorised person, officials said. On Aug. 13 and Aug. 20, the individual who got the emails alerted the division about the mistake and reported deleting the messages.
Between July 16 and Aug. 10, the first email had the details of persons being checked. The data of people checked on Aug. 15 was included in the second email.
The department said the breach was confirmed to the U.S. by authorities. The Health and Human Care Agency and the Department of Justice in Delaware. Furthermore the agency will open a call centre dedicated to supplying data breach information. Starting on Monday, people with questions should dial 1-833-791-1663.
The person who sent the emails is no longer hired by the organisation. The required practises and processes have been retrained by staff.
