The system contains payroll deduction information, including last names, first names, middle initials, Social Security numbers and possibly bank details.
The information covers employees from all ranks, even Gov. Gray Davis and his staff.
"The governor is a potential victim in this because he is one of those state employees," said Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas.
It had not yet been determined if the crackers used the information for any purposes, including identity theft.
"There is nothing to show at this point that anything was taken out of the system; it was only hacked into the system," Blanas said.
The breach of the state database occurred April 5, an investigation determined.
State Controller Kathleen Connell said her office -- which administers payroll -- noticed during a routine security check May 7 that the server had been penetrated.
She said she contacted the Sacramento Valley Hi Tech Task Force, a multi-agency task force that is a division of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office.
Connell said the data operations manager assured her the system had been patched as of Friday afternoon.
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