County Courthouse Breaches Residents' SSNs, Other Personal Data

For about six hours, anyone who searched for a Sutter County Superior Courthouse criminal or traffic case on public access computers could view the defendant's Social Security number, date of birth, driver's license number and home address.

California court rules clearly state such data should be redacted by court clerks for the protection of privacy.

The accidental data breach occurred when a new case management system went live on the morning of June 13, 2016.

The privacy settings hadn't been set up properly for public users.

The system was taken down the same afternoon after a reporter alerted Court Executive Officer Stephanie Hansel that private information was visible to the public.

The system will remain down until successful security settings are tested.

"We're concerned about privacy," Hansel said.

The courthouse is transitioning to a new case system, called "Odyssey," which is managed by private company Tyler Technologies.

"The transition has been very challenging. We are trying really hard to meet everyone's needs," Hansel said. "This is a huge project."