Houston data breach exposes firefighters’ personal info, union says they’re being blamed

Houston firefighters tell 2 Investigates they are being unfairly blamed for a data breach they did not cause.

The City of Houston intended to share information about firefighters’ promotion exams through a link. That link led at least one HFD employee to social security numbers that were not password protected. Documents show the firefighter told his Fire Chief who then took steps to block the unauthorized access.

“If it’s not coming from a trusted source, you don’t open it. Well if the city is sending it out, it’s a pretty trusted source. Somebody didn’t lock down the information that was on the other side of that link,” said HPFFA President Patrick Lancton.

Last Friday, the Human Resources Director Jane E. Cheeks sent a letter to firefighters appearing to clast blame stating, “several HFD members used the link to gain access to and download certain non-public folders. Those non-public folders contained the Social Security numbers of 7,525 current and former HFD members.”

“That’s 100 percent not true. That’s a good way to cover up somebody’s mistake, but that is just not the truth,” Lancton added. “And right now we need to be dealing with the truth. The truth is the city sent an email, again I don’t think it was malicious I think it was accidental but still somebody needs to be held accountable.”

The city’s top officials say the access was inadvertent.