What Happened?

During a drug raid, police found dozens of background check reports stolen from ABCD Inc. personnel files. A temp employed at ABCD, Alice Stickyfingers (who had a history of drug offenses), was arrested in the raid.

The information from the background checks was being used in an Identity Theft criminal operation.

Alice had been hired as a temp at ABCD without an adequate background check. She had access to ABCD personnel files and had taken home handfuls of old background check reports.

 
What Should Employers Do?

Background all staff. Background all staff members, including full-time employees, part-time employees, temps, contractors, and volunteers. Note: Many agencies conduct only trivial background checks, if any, on temps and contractors before they place them on your site. Make sure everyone who comes onto your site to work or has privileged access to your information has been background checked to your requirements. For more information about our background check recommendations see Employment Background Checks: What Do We Recommend?

Limit access to background checks. Background checks and information from them should only be available to selected staff within the Human Resource function. Background checks should be stored separately from other personnel records and kept under lock and key.

Securely dispose of all personnel files. Federal law requires the secure disposal of consumer information (including old paper background check reports and computer disks that may have contained personnel information such as background checks). For more information about Federal requirements for consumer information disposal, see Disposing of Consumer Report Information? New Rule Tells How.  NAID, The National Association for Information Destruction has a rigorous information destruction vendor certification program. For local NAID certified vendors, see NAID Certified Operations. A Matter of Fact is an associate member of NAID and highly recommends the association’s certification programs.

Case Study Disclaimer: Case studies are presented for educational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional legal advice. Names and non-essential facts may have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. However the story is true and should be used to learn from others’ experiences.