Dear Concord Community:
The Town of Concord takes seriously its responsibility to protect and manage the information entrusted to us. As part of that responsibility, I wanted to let you know about an incident that recently occurred.
On October 17, 108 computer hard drives that were removed from Town computers as part of a routine replacement program over the past two years were scheduled to be destroyed during the annual Swap Off/Drop Off event at Concord Public Works on Keyes Road. Unfortunately, the drives were improperly removed from the CPW facility; Town staff unsuccessfully searched for the drives onsite and then reported the incident to the Concord Police Department. Since that day, there have been active criminal and administrative investigations into the incident that have required confidentiality about this matter.
We have engaged outside experts who specialize in computer data analysis to work with Town staff to understand what types of information may have been stored on the drives. This analysis continues and, at this time, we are unable to accurately define the full extent of data that may be at risk. However, it appears that much of the information stored on the drives relates to current and former Town employees. Out of an abundance of caution, the Town is providing this notification to the community in advance of the conclusion of the investigations in the interest of transparency and to give employees and residents the opportunity to follow best practices for monitoring personal information.
Once the investigations are complete, the Town will issue formal notifications to those who may have been impacted by this incident and offer any appropriate personal protections in accordance with both State and Federal law. Employees and citizens who have provided personal information to the Town may be impacted and should closely review their bank and credit card statements. If you see anything suspicious, please report this immediately to your financial institution and the Detective Bureau of the Concord Police Department at (978) 318-3400. You may want to consider monitoring your accounts, placing a security freeze on your credit report and placing fraud alerts with the three credit bureaus. Please visit www.ftc.gov/idtheft for more information as well.
In closing, I want to express the Town's sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may cause residents and employees. Town departments are doing everything possible to identify those who have been impacted personally and to determine what processes need to be improved to better protect Town property.
Sincerely,
Stephen Crane
Town Manager
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