Sheriff’s Office investigating breach of Humboldt County employees’ personal information

HUMBOLDT COUNTY – The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a breach of public employees’ personal information.
An anonymous tip led to a search warrant being served in Trinity County. Several boxes of documents from Humboldt County were found including current and former employees’ payroll records. Those contain personal information like bank routing information as well as drivers license and social security numbers.
In a letter to all county employees, Administrative Officer Amy Nilsen and Sheriff William Honsal wrote that an investigation is underway and will utilize experts in data loss and recovery.
The county believes this is an isolated incident and all documents have been recovered and securely stored.
According to the letter, records are being reviewed and once those affected are identified, employees will be offered additional services to protect their information from fraud.
We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.