Thomas McConnell of Smyrna was one of more than 4,500 people whose names, social security numbers, phone numbers and email addresses were accidentally blasted to more than a thousand email recipients by the Georgia Department of Labor last September.
 
"It's a tremendous burden every day," he said. "From the time you turn on your computer to every time you pick up your phone, you're wondering what surprises are going to come next."
 
McConnell has now filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Labor.
 
"When personal information like this gets in the hands of the wrong people," said Attorney Scott Schweber, "It becomes easy for them to commit identity theft."
 
The suit accuses the Department of Labor of negligence in allowing the personal information to escape what McConnell said should have been a secure data pen. It asks that victims be made whole through credit monitoring paid for by the state and by the payment of unspecified damages.
 
So far, the Department of Labor has not commented on the lawsuit, which was filed in Fulton County Superior Court.