Data breach puts 3.5 million Texans at risk.

• Position: CYBERCRIME

The sensitive personal information of 3.5 million Texans, including names, addresses, birth dates, and Social Security numbers, was available on a public server for longer than one year, the state has admitted.

The data wasn't breached by hackers or disgruntled employees, it was passed around various state agencies before finally ending up on a state-controlled public server, according to Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs. The data was transferred to the comptroller in three unencrypted files from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Employees Retirement System of Texas between January and May 2010.

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The information was discovered on the public server on March 31, 2011.

The state said there's no sign the data has been misused, but officials can't be sure. Combs said all numbers were embedded in a chain of numbers and not sorted into separate fields.

She said several internal protocols were not followed, and her office is working with the Texas attorney general to conduct an investigation.

According to a Reuters report, the data files were not encrypted as required by Texas administrative rules established for agencies. The problem was discovered when the comptroller's office staffers were doing a security scan on some other files and...