Florida prison email blunder exposes visitor contact info to inmates
A data breach at a Florida prison has inmates' families concerned for their welfare after their contact details were allegedly leaked to convicted criminals.
An Everglades Correctional Institution (ECI) staffer sent an email to every prison inmate on July 24 containing the contact details of their fellow jailbirds' visitors, the Florida Phoenix reported.
The allegedly leaked contact details of visitors included names, email addresses, and phone numbers, leaving many concerned for their own welfare, as well as that of their locked-up relatives.
Five people told the regional news outlet that the prison had informed them of the data leak, including Jan Thompson who fears being extorted.
She said: "What if there's some inmate that doesn't like another inmate? And he tells his family, 'Okay, here's his wife's phone number. Call her and tell her if she doesn't pay and put $500 on my book, I'm going to have her husband stabbed and killed.' What's stopping them from doing that?"
Kelly told the Phoenix that she had gone to great lengths to scrub her digital footprint from the web following her stalking ordeal, only for her data to potentially end up in the hands of criminals anyway.
