According to experts, 128 million personal information data records were reportedly endangered by theft, loss, or hacking in 2007. That's more than six times the 20 million exposed records counted the previous year.
January 2008: Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Birmingham, Alabama, an employee's portable hard drive containing Social Security numbers of more than 250,000 vets and more than a million doctors went missing. The loss was not reported for three weeks. Does this have all the earmarks of someone who wants to protect the public or protect their own ass?
Less than a year earlier, another VA employee in the Washington, D.C., area brought home a laptop computer that held the names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers of 26.5 million veterans, only to have it stolen from his house. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Is this person still employed by the VA? Probably. This info was unencrypted even after “new” guidelines were set for the handling of portable computers, including the use of special encryption technology to keep unauthorized people from accessing sensitive data. You think maybe the person who took this computer home just callously skipped the encryption step because he was late for dinner, or maybe he wanted easy access to the data without having to go through an extra cumbersome step? Or perhaps he was paid a bonus sum by who ever he sold the information to if the info was not encrypted.
It is unbelievable that someone just happens to have broken into his home the very same day he took this computer home. This is not coincidence it is collusion. It is theft. This is the action of a person who does not give a damn about the security of anyone else’s personal information. He does not think beyond himself. He should not be allowed to have any access to other people’s personal data. The fact that he took it home and the computer was stolen was enough to fire his ass.
The fact that this government allowed this individual to continue his employment is proof that this government does not take the protection of its citizens seriously. It also shows how they don’t care what we citizens think of their actions. They believe they are working above the law and because they are allowed to continue this course of action proves that they are above the law.
This situation is intolerable.
Has any of this ‘lost’ information been compromised and used to secure credit or jobs for some low-life? Has this information been sold to thieves? Why have we not seen any reports of information on these individuals being used illegally? Surely, not every single instance of carelessness has resulted in not one person being harmed. This coincidence is also beyond belief. This would indicate a very large cover-up protecting higher-ups and any investigative reporter worth his/her career path with visions of winning a Pulitzer would do what they can to uncover such a cover-up.
So why do careless government workers keep putting our citizens at risk? Because we are raising a generation that thinks of no one but themselves. They do not care one iota about the safety or security of anything that is not theirs beyond what it takes to keep their job.
Identity theft is the No. 1 fraud complaint registered by consumers, according to the Federal Trade Commission. ID theft is no laughing matter to the individual who has been victimized. If the personal information of the person who took these computers home were to be broadcast to the public whenever their carelessness resulted in the loss of other people personal data I would be willing to bet these computers would stop being ‘lost’.
The theft of this type of data affects the entire credit system by forcing credit card companies to absorb the losses that these low-lifes generate which then gets passed onto us conscientious credit users in the form of higher interest rates and higher fees.
July 2006: A U.S. Transportation Department laptop with data on 133,000 people was swiped after a Miami-area employee left it in the back of his SUV when he went to lunch. Careless? Yes. Irresponsible? Yes. Enough to lose his job? Not bloody likely. Was the data jeopardized? As usual, the response from the people in charge is no.
November 2007: a South Bend, Indiana Memorial Hospital employee lost a laptop containing names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of more than 4,300 current and retired employees after reportedly giving it to a flight attendant to stow before takeoff. The security of this data was obviously not taken very seriously or this laptop would have remained in his possession at all times.
A 2007 Justice Department audit found that the FBI was somehow losing 2.6 laptops per month, many with sensitive or classified information. Unacceptable.
More than 1,400 Energy Department laptops went missing in a six-year period, according to another audit. So much for homeland security. Unacceptable.
If I was running these departments, no computer would be allowed to be taken home. If these people cannot get their work done in the office in the time frame authorized then find someone else who can or hire more people.
A February report by the Government Accountability Office found that only two of 24 agencies the GAO reviewed had implemented all the security measures recommended by the government. Isn’t this proof enough that these people don’t care about information that is not their own?
March 2007: retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls admitted that 45 million debit and credit card numbers had been nabbed from their computer systems by hackers who most likely got it all wirelessly. This also shows the lack of care or willingness to take the necessary precautions to safeguard other people’s data. This situation indicates that the problem is not just with our government but that it involves a general lack of care throughout our population.
If some congressman’s data or a corporate executive’s data was compromised in any of this carelessness I’ll bet you heads would roll and changes would be made. But for the common citizen, the everyday hard-working taxpayer, the low-man on the give a crap-meter who never receives any consideration except at election time and when taxes are due, what about us?
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