The Board of Election Commissioners learned in late 2006 that in fulfilling some requests forelectronic voter registration data for registered voters in the City of Chicago prior to October, 2006, voters' Social Securitynumbers, if provided by voters when registering to vote, may have been inadvertently included. The Board stopped asking forfull Social Security numbers in 2004 and now requests only the last four digits of the voter's Social Security number. If youregistered before 2004, it is possible that your full Social Security number was in the Board's voter registration database.

The Board is in the process of retrieving any computer discs with Social Security numbers that were provided. The Board also has erased all full Social Security numbers from its files.

There also was an incident in October 2006 in which someone claimed to have found a way to gain access to voter registration information maintainedby the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners through the Board's website. Within the hour of being alerted of this issue, the Board severed any connection between the website and any voter registration information so that it was impossible to gain entry through the site to the Board's voter registration database.

There is no evidence that any registered voter'spersonal information was compromised in any manner. The Board retained the accounting firm of Grant Thornton LLP to conduct athorough and complete forensics investigation to determine whether, in fact, any registered voter's personal information was compromised and to recommend additional measures to secure confidential information pertaining to voters and to prevent inadvertent disclosure.

To protect yourself from the possibility of identity theft, you may place a fraud alert on your credit files. A fraud alert lets creditors know to contact you before opening new accounts. Just call any oneof the three credit reporting agencies at a number below. This will let you automatically place fraud alerts with all ofthe agencies.Youwill then receive letters from all of them, with instructions on how to get a free copy of your credit report from each.

Experian - 1-888-397-3742

Equifax - 1-800-525-6285

TransUnion - 1-800-680-7289

You also have the option under a new Illinois law to request asecurity freeze on yourcredit report by making a request in writing by certified mail to the credit reporting agency. A security freeze prohibits, with certain exceptions, the credit reporting agency from releasing your credit report or any information in the report withoutyour express permission. For details on how to obtain a credit report security freeze and how it works, contact the Illinois Attorney General's Identity Theft Hotline below, or visit this section of the Attorney General's website.

When you receive your credit reports, look themover carefully. Look for accounts you did not open. Look for inquiries from creditors that you did not initiate. Look for personal information, such as a home address and Social Security number that is not accurate.If you see anything you do notunderstand, call the credit-reporting agency at the telephone number on the report.

If you do find suspicious activity on your credit reports, contact the Chicago Police Department or call the CookCounty State's Attorney (Public Interest Bureau at 1-312-603-8700), or the Illinois Attorney General (Identity Theft Hotline at 1-866-999-5630) to report it.

Even if you do not find any signs of fraud on your reports, it is recommended that you check your creditreport every three months for the next year. Call one of the numbers above to order your reports andkeep the fraud alert in place.