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September 19, 2007 Dear Retired Members: Over the past week, we have received numerous calls from retirees seeking information about a letter that they received from the City of New York's Financial Information Services Agency (FISA), the entity responsible for processing retirees' pension checks, regarding a stolen laptop that contained personal information about City retirees (including names, addresses, social security numbers and bank accounts). In order to protect any personal information that may have been on the stolen laptop from being used illegally, the letter announced that arrangements have been made for affected retirees to receive the Equifax Credit Watch Gold with 3-in-1 Monitoring product free of charge for one year, and provided detailed instructions for signing up for the product, which all interested retirees must do by 11/30/07, the expiration date of the offer. According to the literature provided to retirees by the City, the Equifax product provides the following service:
We understand that it is distressing to be notified that your personal information may have been compromised and appreciate your concerns. Many of you have asked us over the past few days, "what should we do to protect ourselves?" Although there is no way to fully protect against identity theft, we urge all retirees to take the City up on its offer to provide the Equifax monitoring program free of charge for one year. In the meantime, we have contacted the City and expressed our concerns about the security of our members' personal information going forward. The City has informed us that they have hired a consultant to review its policies, practices, and procedures to ensure the continued security of our retiree members' personal information in the future. We will keep you advised of any further developments. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact FISA's call center at (212) 857-1777.
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