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Federal Government Routinely Loses Computers Containing Sensitive Personal Information on Americans
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ShareOctober 13, 2006 4:35 PM
The federal government has routinely lost computers containing massive amounts of sensitive personal information, according to a new report by the House Committee on Government Reform.
Every one of the 19 departments and agencies audited reported at least one loss of personally identifiable information since 2003. Overall, the U.S. government gets a D+ for computer security.
The report shows more than 800 incidents, including the loss of hundreds of laptop computers and flash drives containing personal information about millions of Americans.
THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS
Many of the incidents involve "employee carelessness, contractor misconduct, and third party thefts," the report says.
The Department of the Treasury, which includes the IRS, reported 340 separate incidents, the most of any department or agency. According to the report, the Treasury Department "could not report the number of individuals impacted, whether notification of individuals had occurred, or whether incident-specific remedial efforts were undertaken."
The Department of Transportation reported only one minor incident to the Committee, but a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a series of data breaches that compromised information affecting 133,000 people. The Department of Transportation also lost nearly 400 laptop computers, the report said.
The Defense Department reported 43 incidents, including the loss of the personal information of 30,000 recruiting prospects after a laptop fell off a motorcycle belonging to a Navy recruiter. A thumb drive lost in March of this year contained records on more than 200,000 enlisted Marines.
Some of the losses had been previously reported, such as the massive loss of data from the theft of a Department of Veterans Affairs official's laptop. But the report says few of the incidents it describes have been reported publicly.
October 13, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
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Why can't they "lose" my tax bill? :)
Posted by: Gerald | Oct 13, 2006 4:58:40 PM
This is ridiculous.
I would like them to explain why the data was on laptops & flash drives to begin with.
Plain & simple, that type of data has no business being on portable devices.
It may be "convenient" to be able to work with the data at home, but it is not a necessity. Not with sensitive data like this.
Posted by: Alex | Oct 14, 2006 9:34:11 AM
And then the US goverment whines that the EU doesn't want to give them passanger information. Take care of your data boys and girls( and governments). :)
Posted by: Euronerd | Oct 16, 2006 12:55:29 AM
Does anyone ever get fired over these matters? Even if the computers didn't have any information on them, wouldn't you think that people would be fired for losing the monetary value of the computer, much less sensitive data.
How many of us would get fired from our jobs if we lost a computer?
I have a real investigative assignment for ABC News. Don't just tell me computers were lost, tell me what happened to those who lost them and the name of the supervisor who took no action other than to note, "they were lost."
Posted by: gus | Oct 16, 2006 10:05:59 AM
What a disgrace! They obviously have no internal controls to monitor the use (and abuse) of these governmental assets.
I'm going to bet that these incidences would decrease if the "loser's" paycheck was docked for the cost of the computer.
Posted by: WaterBird | Oct 16, 2006 7:27:48 PM
Its all part of the game....the government of the United States is nothing more than liars, thieves, and crooks.....
They don't hold people accountable, ever!! I think they are still looking for the guys who shot Kennedy aren't they?
Posted by: Michael E Brown | Oct 18, 2006 12:41:34 PM
are they losing the data due to stupidity... or are they 'losing' the data with hidden reasons?
Posted by: a | Oct 19, 2006 5:37:11 PM
In Reply to PIERRE THOMAS and JACK DATE article about students dropping out of school.
Our schools are out-of-step with the way most students learn. Until the general public realizes that education requires more than one person teaching 30-40 students as is the case with most classrooms across our country, our society will continue to lose.
Many of these students are fed-up with a "system" best suited to those students with learning styles compatible with the way a particular teaching style.
To really prevent students from dropping out, we need to at least 2 or 3 teachers, with complementary teaching styles working a classroom.
Then we would have increased the chances that most students would feel good enough about themselves to stay in school.
As a teacher to has taught in California prison, I've recognized that everyone get's real about life in their own time. We find in prison that is usually around someones late 30's or 40's. Regardless of how much you plead with someone, they have to get there on their own.
If you have teachers who cannot relate to these kids, how can you expect them to pretend they are paying attention.
Posted by: SchoolTeacher | Nov 20, 2006 7:04:52 PM
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