But most of the 937,548 who were notified by mail of the data security breach chose not to pursue the year-long identity theft protection provided by the state.

Ron Sylvester, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, said state authorities expected 15 to 25 percent of the people involved would sign up for the service.

The current rate is just 18 percent.

According to Sylvester, calls to the state call center at one point reached 7,000 a day. Now the flow of calls has dropped to 1,300 a day.

Sylvester said the state will keep the call center open at least through the week of Aug. 6.

The security breach was discovered when a computer data back-up tape was stolen from an intern’s car in June.

Since then, the state has mailed out letters to each of the people who had their names and Social Security numbers on the tape.

State authorities said it would take sophisticated equipment to access the computer tape.

The toll-free telephone number for the call center is 1-888-644-6812.

More information can be found on the state of Ohio Web site at:

www.ohio.gov/idprotect.

Jim.otte@whiotv.com