The City of Rochester has suspended six employees who it says accessed other employees’ tax forms without permission.

City officials say someone with access to an internal drive was able to look at W-2 and Vendor 10-99 forms. 

They do not believe anybody's identity has been compromised nor was there any malicious intent.

Usually the city puts that information on a thumb drive and gives it to a printer, but that might not have been the case this year.

"I think what happened this year, the procedure wasn't properly followed and rather than physically transfer those files, they were made available on a shared drive. Unfortunately, some employees — I don't know if it was out of curiosity or what the rationale was — went to look at those files. It wasn't labeled W-2s, it was labeled for the name of the employee that prints the documents,” said Justin Roj, City of Rochester director of communications.

City officials continue to investigate.

It is also offering identity theft protection services to employees for free.

The Rochester Fire Fighters Association released a tweet overnight:

“The city’s report about unauthorized users is incorrect. That file was not encrypted and widely accessible to all city employees. IAFF L1071 made the city aware of this issue and now IAFF members have been disciplined for it. #Whistleblower”