A hard drive containing the names, Social Security and bank account numbers for 100,000 current and former Transportation Security Administration employees was reported stolen Thursday, prompting a criminal investigation.
The external hard drive contained the name, social security number, date of birth, payroll information, bank account and routing information for TSA employees from January 2002 through August 2005 and went missing from a secure area of its human resources office in Crystal City, Va., according to a TSA statement released Friday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Secret Service have launched a criminal investigation.
TSA will offer one year of credit monitoring services to affected individuals as soon as it develops a process to do so, according to a letter sent to affected employees and posted on TSA’s Web site.
“TSA has no evidence that an unauthorized individual is using your personal information, but we bring this incident to your attention so that you can be alert to signs of any possible misuse of your identity,” said the letter, signed by TSA head Kip Hawley. “We are notifying you out of an abundance of caution at this early stage of the investigation given the significance of the information contained on the device. We apologize that your information may be subject to unauthorized access, and I deeply regret this incident.”
Affected individuals should contact their financial institutions in addition to credit monitoring agencies.
A TSA spokesman said the loss occurred in recent days and will not pose a significant risk of security breaches in sensitive areas patrolled by workers at airports, ports and rail yards. Access to such areas requires additional credentials that use unique physical identifiers such as fingerprints, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security protocols. . . .
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was briefed by the department, adding, “For an agency suffering from morale problems, this is a terrible and unfortunate blow.”
The panel will probably hold hearings, said Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.), who chairs a subcommittee overseeing the TSA. “This organization responsible for the nation’s security has had a massive security breach. Whether it is known what the breach was or how it occurred, it did occur and this raises enormous concerns,” Lee said. “We will be in a posture of quickly looking for answers.” — Washington Post
Trusting the government to provide security for the nation’s transportation infrastructure is utterly absurd. They can’t even secure their own offices, let alone the airport. Nationalizing airport security was not the right answer then or now.
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13 Comments
Mike, I think the hard drive’s status was reported as “missing,” and that they really have no idea whether it’s propping up a wobbly desk leg somewhere in the office or stolen or what.
Watch… next they’ll tell us it was a morale problem and that an employee got depressed and just forgot what he did with the drive.
You’re quite right that the TSA is unsure if the drive is missing or has actually been stolen. They even said as much. But the involvement of the FBI indicates they think there’s a good possibility that it was stolen.
As for morale, keep in mind that this is the office within TSA charged with creating morale problems.
No matter if it’s missing or stolen, TSA can’t even secure it’s own office.
It is about time they had to worry about something besides the amount of shaving cream you have or if your going to say bomb in the airport and throwing away all the stuff you need.
It is also about time they fall in the graces of there own false sense of security and realize it really isn’t there.
“We will be in a posture of quickly looking for answers.â€
Not actually looking for answers, mind you. Just posturing.
As former a military member, my information was contained in the data the VA had stolen. As a former TSA member, my information is on the missing hard drive. I think there’s a lesson for me in there somewhere. At least I’ll be able to get my free credit report. “I’m thinking of a number…it’s 100,000.”
And, Michael still can’t implement the comment system properly…
Pretty sad, considering that he claims to be a WordPress consultant.
Sometimes security folks will have security lapses and sometimes webmasters will have website issues…
How about getting your own stuff together before you go yapping about other peoples failings!
Eh? What’s wrong with the comment system? And if you’re having problems with it, why did you post an obnoxious comment about it, instead of contacting me?
Icing on the cake to the President’s Identity Theft Task Force Report that outlined steps the gov’t wants to take to curtail identity theft.
They really need to stop adding to the problem, before trying to offer remedies and solutions.
as always the government does it’s very best to inspire confidence and trust in it’s employees and citizens.
People at TSA are already getting placed on administrative leave and quitting and others are being threatened with being fired, whether they are really the cause or not. You know the air marshals who’s identity is supposed to be secret, they are on the data disk – home addresses and all. The head of the HR department should be fired!
I recently explained to TSA that they have more Disgruntled Former Employees than they have Current Employees, and many Current Employees are Disgruntled.Management has worked HARD to create this situation. In the DHS Satisfaction Survey last year, TSA was 36th out of 36 divisions within DHS. It takes SKILL to come in dead last. TSA is TRULY an example of the excrement rising to the top.
As a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist, a consultant and director in my company…this kind of stupidity is normal in the world that I work in. Fortunately, the rest of us have a choice in protecting ourselves. I work with families and businesses in 42 states; I’m licensed as required and have background clearances to match my title. If I can help someone, please let me know.
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