Concord Employee Info Could Be Breached On Missing Hard Drives

CONCORD, MA — Concord employees and residents were notified on Thursday that their personal information may have been breached after 108 computer hard drives from town offices went missing. The town said most of the information on the hard drives related to current and former Concord employees.

In a letter to the community, Town Manager Stephen Crane said that on Oct. 17, 108 hard drives were "improperly removed from the CPW (Concord Public Works) facility," and never found by employees. The incident was reported to police.

Crane said the hard drives were removed from town computers as part of a routine replacement program over the past two years and were scheduled to be destroyed during the annual Swap Off/Drop Off event at Concord Public Works.

The police department opened a criminal investigation into the incident. The exact information and the extent of the information on the drives isn't clear, according to Cranes letter, but the bulk of the information was focused on town employees.

Cranes letter warned employees and residents to keep an eye on their personal information and accounts in the meantime.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the Town is providing this notification to the community in advance of the conclusion of the investigations in the interest of transparency and to give employees and residents the opportunity to follow best practices for monitoring personal information. "

Concord still isn't clear on exactly whose information may have been breached, but reassured residents that once the details were clear, those affected would be notified and offered, "Any appropriate personal protections in accordance with both State and Federal law."