Two Manatee County school employees have been disciplined as a result of a breach at Manatee County schools.
- 2 Manatee school employees disciplined for data breach
- Employee W-2 forms sent to hackers
- Scam committed against school districts across country
The two employees are responsible for releasing nearly 8,000 W-2 forms for employees who worked in the district in 2016 to an email hacker.
Officials said an email scammer sent one of the employees an email that appeared to be from Superintendent Diana Greene, requesting the information.
The scam has been perpetrated against school districts across the country and the IRS issued a warning about it on Feb. 2, just one day before Deputy Superintendent Ron Ciranna and other district officials learned of the breach in Manatee's system.
The district is providing identify protection and credit monitoring for all affected employees, whether retired or currently with the district, for the next two years.
At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Superintendent Diana Greene said district officials take full responsibility for the data breach.
Greene said she empathized with the employees who were angry over their personal information being stolen.
She said she understands the impulse to send emails at 4 a.m., criticizing district officials for the situation, and she encouraged employees to reach out to her, Ron Ciranna, or other school board members.
"I was indeed very angry and frustrated, you know, how could this have happened?” Greene said. “Know that this hasn’t gone to deaf ears. Whatever you’re probably saying in that email, I may have said it to myself 10 times. It doesn’t matter that it has happened across the country, it doesn’t matter, you just don’t want it to happen to you.”
One of the employees responsible for the hack was reassigned to another position that doesn't have any access to sensitive material. The other employee was given a written warning.