Government agency misplaces hard drive with employee data
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Not so much misplaced as it is lost to the four corners of the world. The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has lost a hard drive with over 100,000 employee records on it. They don’t know where it is, it could be stolen, it could still be in the building sitting on someone’s desk but no one knows.
Computer World discovered authorities representing the TSA said, “It is unclear at this stage whether the device is still within headquarters or was stolen.” If the drive was stolen it was taken from what has been called a “secure” area so not just anyone could have walked off with it, so says the government and we all BELIEVE EVERYTHING the government tells us, don’t we?
The FBI and Secret Service have been asked to assist with the investigation but only if it is determined the drive was stolen. Data on the hard drive is dated between 2002 and 2005 containing information such as social security numbers, birth dates, bank account numbers and routing information for checks among other sensitive data.
This wouldn’t be the first time a government agency has misplaced a hard drive or entire computers for that matter and it certainly won’t be the last. It seems the government is actually good at doing this but I would like to see how the lost/stolen ratio from the government compares to that of corporations just to know where everyone stands; I think that would be useful.
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May 5th, 2007
This on the heels of the Alabama Veteran’s Administration hard drive loss. With so many assets (hard drives, discs, laptops) gone lost stolen or missing, this makes me wonder if government security is just an oxymoron http://www.essentialsecurity.com/news.htm?id=200
The TSA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; the DHS proposed a national ID card/database. If DHS can’t keep 100,000 of its TSA employees’ data secure can it keep a national DB safe?
May 5th, 2007
I honestly don’t know… every system is full of holes but it seems our government is as leaky as an unpatched installation of Windows.
May 8th, 2007
Jonathan, after the Veteran’s Administration laptop with 26.5 million individual’s data, VA Alabama hard drive loss, FEMA (Michael D. Brown) and Alberto Gonzales leaked emails government’s not just leaky — it’s Niagra Falls!