SEATTLE – Boeing is investigating an internal security breach impacting thousands of employees in four states, including Washington.

The company said it was notified in January after a worker accidentally sent the personal information of 36,000 Boeing employees to his spouse back in November.

The worker told investigators he needed help formatting a spreadsheet and didn’t realized the document contained sensitive, personal information. Boeing said the spreadsheet contained employee names, ID numbers and accounting codes in visible columns and birth dates and social security numbers in hidden columns.

The company sent a letter to Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson in early February informing him of the security breach impacting about 7,288 Boeing employees there.

A letter was also sent to those employees who may have been affected and the company has offered free credit monitoring for those workers.

Boeing said copies of the spreadsheet have been destroyed and they don’t believe any personal information was misused.

News Source: komonews.com