County official's SSN compromised in audit report

Submitted by R. Neal on Tue, 2007/09/11 - 5:13pm.

According to this media alert, Todd Cook's Social Security Number was "included on printed copies of the final version of the 'Review of Auto/Travel Allowance in the Mayor’s Office' published by the County Commission’s Department of Internal Audit and released to the public and the media at yesterday’s Special Called Meeting of the County Commission."

I checked, and it has been redacted from the KNS's PDF copy posted online.

Just as an editorial comment, this is pretty much inexcusable.



That's some auditor....not

That's some auditor....not only this, but the report was obtained by the KNS way before it's 'formal' release at the meeting yesterday. Wonder how many more of these leaks we'll hear about.

I agree, this is inexcusable. Especially that nobody in the auditor's office caught this after taking months to complete the audit.

R. Neal's picture
You have to wonder how

You have to wonder how thorough an audit is if they can't audit their audit for such glaring errors. I'm sure it was just an innocent mistake, though.

Bean can jump in here

but I don't recall the Shopper reporting that Tyler actually picked up reports from the Health Department. My recollection is that Tyler was sent to get reports of Lloyd Daugherty and Kelvin Moxley, but the Health Department did not release them.

Your link, Randy, is to the Sheriff's Office official report which is on our Web site.

By the way, if the audit report was leaked to the KNS, I'd say the leak came from the Mayor's Office -- not the auditor. -- s.

The auditor's inclusion of

The auditor's inclusion of Cook's SSN is a terrible mistake. For Todd's sake, I hope there's no improper use made of this information.

Contrast this to Chief of Staff Mike Arms intentional release of former Sheriff Tim Hutchison's SSN, bank account numbers and other personal information. Wonder where that dispute stands?

but the report was obtained

but the report was obtained by the KNS way before it's 'formal' release at the meeting yesterday

The KNS post came from the incomplete audit report - it did not include the auditor's "rebuttal" to the Mayor's responses. The leak came from Suite 615, not Walls. Nonetheless, making Cook's SS# public was an egregious oversight.

Larry Van Guilder

R. Neal's picture
but I don't recall the

but I don't recall the Shopper reporting that Tyler actually picked up reports from the Health Department. My recollection is that Tyler was sent to get reports of Lloyd Daugherty and Kelvin Moxley, but the Health Department did not release them.

Your link, Randy, is to the Sheriff's Office official report which is on our Web site.

On a closer look, I see that the quote above is in fact not from the Halls Shopper but from a KNS editorial that is contained in the Sheriff's report that is posted on your Halls Shopper website. Thanks for the clarification, correction made, my apologies, irony noted.

P.S. I was probably confused on my recollection of this:

Halls Shopper News, September 4, 2006

We recently reported an unconfirmed charge that two years ago, the Ragsdale administration had asked the health department to find out whether radio talk show hosts Lloyd Daugherty and Kelvin Moxley were TennCare recipients. Daugherty had this to say about Ragsdale’s Chesapeake’s remarks:

“It appears that the Knox County Health Department is becoming just as politicized as the probation department. You’ve got professional people trying to do their jobs, but you’ve got other people who are keeping the Ragsdale administration informed.”

Police report requires SSN

I had to file a police report for a break-in, and had to give my SSN to file a report. Now everyone who want a copy of a police report can get SSN numbers. I was looking through some old military orders and noticed that everyone in the company is on one order with their name and SSN, about 200. I am sure if you look, you can find 1LT John J. Duncan Jr., on National Guard orders with SSN. I thought the Privacy Act of 1974 prohibited the police from asking for SSN.

Health Department

The clarification is important, because there are professionals at the Health Department who take confidentiality of records seriously and we had no proof that someone had released information to Tyler,as I recall. -- s.

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