Misprint makes breach in private security

Misprint makes breach in private security

By Margarita Snegireva. A second printing mistake in a little more than a year caused about 260,000 Social Security numbers to be put on the outside of envelopes and mailed from a state agency, stunning recipients concerned about the risk of identity theft.

The state Department of Health and Family Services said Tuesday that a private vendor based in Plano, Texas, made the mistake while sending informational brochures for state Medicaid services in the past few days.

Recipients found their own Social Security numbers on the envelopes.

EDS Corp. caught the mistake late Monday and stopped the mailings, which were supposed to go to 485,000 people, said Rea Holmes, executive assistant with the department.