ATLANTA — Secretary of State Brian Kemp said today the personal information of 6 million registered Georgia voters that was inadvertently released has been secured.

Kemp’s office announced his office had obtained all 12 discs that contained personally identifiable voter information, including Security Social numbers.

“As of 11 a.m., all 12 discs containing sensitive voter information have been retrieved or destroyed,” Kemp said in a news release. “My staff has verified with the media outlets and political parties that received these discs that they have not copied or otherwise disseminated confidential voter data to outside sources. I am confident that our voters’ personal information has not been compromised.

“I take full responsibility for this mistake and have taken immediate action to resolve it. The employee at fault has been fired, and I have put in place additional safeguards effective immediately to ensure this situation does not happen again.”

The 12 CDs contained a file with information on voters statewide and were sent to political and media organizations in October. Among the groups receiving the disc were the state’s Republican and Democratic parties.

A lawsuit filed this week says state law required Kemp's office to notify voters and credit agencies that Social Security numbers, dates of birth and driver's license numbers were released.

Kemp says in the open letter that his office learned about the information on Friday. He says staff confirmed that the 12 recipients hadn't copied or disseminated the voter information.

Kemp said he fired the IT employee whom he said was responsible for releasing the information. He said in a letter posted on the agency's website the employee broke internal rules. He didn't identify the employee.

The secretary of state also said future measures will be undertaken to better secure such information and avoid another release.

“Moving forward, the secure site for voter data downloads will be locked to prevent changes by any employee other than the Chief Information Officer acting at my direction,” he said.