Personal Info of Oak Park Village Employees and Retirees Possibly Compromised

Oak Park, IL - A former Village of Oak Park employee, who has been terminated, reportedly emailed to a personal account documents containing the personal information of more than 650 current and former village employees.

Those affected were notified this week of the possible release of their private information, according to a news release from the Village of Oak Park, though ”no intent to misuse the information has been established.”

The emailed documents were health insurance census reports from 2011 to 2014 that contained names, social security numbers and health insurance benefit information for employees and retirees of the village, park district, library, township and West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center, according to the village. The electronic spreadsheets also contained “some limited information regarding dependents of plan participants.”

A long-time human resources employee emailed three of these spreadsheets from a work account to a personal account, the village reports. The former employee was allowed to view and use the information, but sending it to a private email account is prohibited by village policy. Village officials learned about the incident in late January, and after an internal investigation, the employee was terminated in early February.

“While the employee violated serious work rules that resulted in termination of employment, it is important to note that we have no indication that the information taken was intended for any illegal use,” said village manager Cara Pavlicek in a statement. “But since we cannot confirm any authorized reason for the employee to take the information, we are erring on the side of caution and notifying those individuals affected.”

The village has begun enhanced monitoring of outgoing village employee work emails since this incident, the village reports.

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