Oregon Public Broadcasting

Sensitive financial information belonging to about 2,900 people was stolen from a vehicle belonging to a Portland Community College official.

PCC announced Thursday that thieves stole a bag containing a small flash drive. It held information connected to Multnomah County participants in the Oregon Food Stamp Transition Program.

PCC spokesman Dana Haynes says it wouldn't be hard to use that information to steal from the people affected.

Dana Haynes: "It was not password-protected, it was not encrypted, it would be easy, but, we've had telephone conversations with several people who were on the list, who've called us, and so far, we have no evidence that the thief or thieves are aware of what was on the disk."

Haynes says it's against protocol to travel around with unprotected information. Instead, he says information is intentionally kept at multiple locations, so that staff don't have to carry it.

PCC is offering credit protection for a year to the people whose information was compromised.