After identity theft scandals, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is requiring two Texas-based employers to undergo mandatory employee training annually for the next five years.
As part of the agreement, employees of Radio Shack and Select Medical Texas LP. will learn about identity theft, its costs to patients and customers, and the importance of complying with new document disposal procedures, which were implemented as part of the agreements. To further ensure compliance with the new procedures, the two employers must post, at each of their locations, signs describing the record storage and disposal requirements and maintain certification records showing each employee's compliance with the training requirements.
In addition, Radio Shack has agreed to conduct unannounced compliance audits at all of its Texas stores at least twice a year.
Abbott's office prosecuted the two companies under the state's Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act. As a result of the prosecution, in addition to the mandatory training, Select Medical agreed to pay the state $990,000. Radio Shack will pay $630,000. After attorneys' fees, the remaining money will be used to investigate and prosecute future identity theft cases.
In the Select Medical breach, the Levelland Police Department reported that more than 4,000 documents containing customers' sensitive information were found in garbage containers behind the Levelland office of Select Physical Therapy Texas Limited Partnership. In Radio Shack's case, the state's enforcement action began when state investigators learned that the retailer's Portland location exposed thousands of customers' personal information by dumping sensitive records into a public trash can.
Copyright 2008 Information Management Journal
