DAYTON — Sinclair Community College on Monday, Nov. 10, told employees that the names and Social Security numbers of approximately 958 current and former employees were in a file folder that was visible to Web search engines.

Sinclair President Steven Lee Johnson said the affected employees worked full-time at Sinclair from July 2000 through November 2001.

The sensitive file, an Excel spreadsheet, was placed in a folder on a Sinclair computer by an employee who "did not realize that the contents of that folder were technically check marked as being visible to the outside world," Johnson said. The data was not on a Web page. It had been visible since sometime in 2007.

A different Sinclair employee discovered the file on Nov. 4 while doing a Web search and notified Sinclair officials, who immediately took down the information. By Thursday, Nov. 6, Google and Yahoo had removed all traces of the file from their servers. "We have no reason to believe it's ever been accessed, other than the employee who serendipitously accessed it," Johnson said.

Sinclair has received no reports of identity theft. The relative value of the data is low because the file contained names and Social Security numbers, but not addresses or dates of birth, Johnson said.

Johnson informed the Sinclair Leadership Council about the data breach on Monday. Letters were mailed to arrive Monday and Wednesday to both affected and unaffected employees. Sinclair has purchased two years of Equifax Identity Theft Protection and Credit Watch services for affected employees.

"I am confident that this was an accident — inadvertent, isolated human error that has been contained and controlled," Johnson said.

The employee who made the error has no previous disciplinary actions. It remains an open human resources matter, Johnson said.

Sinclair has established a hot line for affected employees: (937) 512-4636. It will be available from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.