•(1) Statement to Council_Social Security numbers?

Link to UCityCitizen.org >HOME

Statement to Council Nov. 8, 2010 _ Social Security Numbers?

Mayor, and Council Members:

On October 4th we learned that Council Member Ricci had accessed some files on the former HR Director’s computer with the permission of the City Manager. These files were transferred both within the network and outside of our secure network to a gmail account.

As a result of many citizen questions, I submitted a Sunshine Request for a list of files that were accessed by Ms. Ricci prior to October 4th, and to whom each of these files was sent. This was an attempt to obtain the facts and separate those from the rumors.

I was utterly flabbergasted by the resistance I met. The City Clerk claimed that she has looked at her records and did not have any files that were sent to her from the HR administrator’s computer. It turned out that the files were sent from the HR Manager’s computer. But still she cannot find any.

Ms. Ricci provided the copies of the non-confidential emails and attachments that she sent to her gmail address. She used whiteout tape to remove her gmail address and possibly other addresses as well as any comments that she may have made. I cannot tell. When properly redacted using blackout, you can tell from what areas the redactions have been made. No legal reasons were provided for the redactions.

The City Clerk told me verbally that she could not say that the emails/files had never been received, but that they were not there when she looked. The Council received the same copies with which I was provided, and you can clearly see that four of those emails were sent to Joyce Pumm. Ms. Pumm repeated that she did not have these emails and attachments in her records.

I am extremely concerned about the security of the records of our city. How could emails that had been sent to Ms. Pumm now not be in her records? I respectfully ask that you determine what happened to all these emails sent to Ms. Pumm from hrmgr and make that publicly known.

As horrifying as it is to think that the city’s records are disappearing, it is even more horrifying to think that a council member with the permission of our city manager would violate the confidentiality and security of anyone’s private identifiable information. It is my understanding that there has been a transfer of employee social security numbers contained in an employee census spreadsheet sent to Ms. Ricci’s gmail account.

Gmail is not secure unless the email and attachments are encrypted. In the terms of service, Google retain rights to any Content that touches their services, including communications (a.k.a. email). Google is not only claiming a right to open your communications, they are claiming rights to “publish” and “publicly display” your content.

In a time of easy identity theft, we know that if there is even the smallest chance of compromise of private identifiable information, the employees must be allowed to protect themselves.

Assuming that this is correct, the employees should be immediately notified, and the Council should consider any extra measures to help them monitor their credit for a reasonable period – as well as any liability to the city.

The New York Times has recently published an article about just such a breach of data. I have printed this for you. Here is a guideline for how they handled the situation.

There are few in this room that would willingly allow their social security numbers to be sent, unencrypted, to a gmail account. Please independently verify whether social security numbers are contained in the employee census spreadsheet that Ms. Ricci sent to her gmail account – and if so, immediately notify the employees so that they may protect their identities.

Thank you.

Paulette Carr, Gannon Ave.

<View or Download attachments below>

Link to UCityCitizen.org >HR FILES<

Copyright 2010 UCityCitizen.org. All rights reserved.

• UCityCitizen.org • Paulette Carr, Ward 2 Councilmember, City of University City • University City, Missouri 63130 •