LifeLock

It’s true what they say about everything being bigger in Texas: big hair, big ranches and now, a big data breach.

More than 89,000 lucky lottery winners are getting the bad news from the Texas Lottery Commission that a former employee took their names, addresses, Social Security numbers and their prize amounts with him when he was fired last year.

The computer analyst copied the information onto computer disks that he took with him when he started his new job in the Texas Comptroller’s Office. He also took with him information on thousands of commission employees and lottery retailer and vendors.

The perpetrator said he wanted the information “for possible future reference as a programmer at other state agencies.”

Dawn Nettles, the commission’s unofficial security guru, said the files weren’t password protected, so the blame shouldn’t be limited to just the former employee.

“He should not have had any personal data on his work computer. However, he should not have been able to copy the files. There should have been a password required,” Nettles said.

A commission spokesman said officials are considering new security measures to better protect sensitive information, but have not yet adopted any new procedures.

The Travis County District Attorney’s office is still investigating the data breach. The former commission employee has not been charged.

The data breach victims are being advised to put fraud alerts on their credit records.

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