There were no developments in the investigation of the April theft of 13,000 Social Security numbers of public employees, a Phoenix police spokeswoman said July 19.
Burglars broke into the offices of Nationwide Retirement Solutions company in downtown Phoenix and stole four laptop computers, one of which had the Social Security numbers of the public employees, company officials said. Although company officials refused to release the local governments affected by the theft, they were reportedly southern Arizona cities and counties, including Bisbee.
The state in 1975 established a deferred compensation program for employees to set up a supplemental retirement program. Nationwide was chosen to administer the program.
The Nationwide office at 4747 N. Seventh St. is managed by Yota Aguilar.
“Yota stated that she believes it was someone that knew where the laptops were located due to the number of laptops taken and the amount of items not taken,” said investigating officer Kory Griffith in a written report.
One of the items left in the office was a Phoenix Police badge, but spokeswoman Stacie Durgee said it was a display badge that probably belonged to Nationwide employee and was not a current issue badge.
Nationwide spokeswoman Carah Brodie said one computer contained personal information about employees enrolled in 65 separate deferred compensation plans in “outlying counties and municipal plans,” representing 12 percent of the company’s customers in Arizona. The information was security protected, she said.
No state employees of Arizona were affected by the burglary, Ms. Brodie said.
Nationwide Retirement Solutions, based in Columbus, Ohio, has more than 1.5 million public sector clients across the country, including a contract with Arizona state government. State employee information was secure on the company’s national computer server, Ms. Brodie said.
All the employees whose information was on the computer were notified of the theft more than month later, and the company offered them assistance with their credit information.
Arizona soon will require holders of personal information to notify customers of any breach of security, with the passage in April of S1338, which was signed by Governor Napolitano. The law will become effective Jan. 1, 2007.
The law also permits the state attorney general to bring charges for violation of the law. The Phoenix metropolitan area had the highest per capita rates of identity theft in 2005, with 9,320 complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission. Security breaches can include loss of misplaced computer disks or backup tapes, stolen computers, hacked data or compromised passwords.