Privacy in the News
Lost Laptops and PII
“Encryption taken off
Transportation IG laptop
shortly before theft”
“The Transportation Department inspector general's office removed the encryption on a laptop containing the personal information of 133,000 Florida residents about two weeks before it was stolen late last month from a government-owned Chevrolet Blazer parked outside a Miami area cafeteria. Acting Transportation Department Inspector General Todd Zinser said Wednesday that the data is routinely encrypted but it was removed as part of software upgrades, despite an Office of Management and Budget request for all government mobile computer devices containing sensitive information to be encrypted.”
Source: GovExec.com, August 10, 2006“Federal Security Snafus”
“Department of Veterans Affairs: A laptop and an external disk containing personal data on 26.5 million veterans and active-duty personnel were stolen last month from the home of a data analyst.”
“Social Security Administration: Social Security numbers and other data on about 200 people were stored and not properly secured on an employee-owned laptop that was stolen at a conference.”
“Internal Revenue Service: An IRS employee lost a laptop containing personal data on 291 agency workers and job applicants after checking it as luggage on an airplane flight.”
“Department of Energy: The apparent hacking of a server that took place last September but was just disclosed resulted in the potential compromise of data on more than 1,500 individuals.”