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A House report deems the incidence of lost or
stolen information more pervasive than thought.
Most cases are outright theft, it says.
Incidents of lost or stolen personal data at
federal government agencies are more widespread
than previously thought, affecting all 19 federal
departments and millions of citizens since 2003,
according to a congressional report released
Friday. Most of the nearly
800 incidents of data losses have never been
publicly
reported. The
"vast majority" were not accidental misplacements,
but rather outright thefts of computers or data
disks containing sensitive information such as
Social Security numbers. In some cases the data
were used inappropriately by employees and private
contractors, the report said. The House
Government Reform Committee began investigating
data losses after several high-profile security
breaches, including the theft in May from an
employee's home of a Veterans Affairs laptop
containing the personal data of more than 26
million veterans. Since then, several other
agencies, including the Social Security
Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and
the Department of Health and Human Services, have
revealed security breaches that affected thousands
more individuals.
The report found that agencies are often slow to
realize that data thefts have taken place or how
many people were affected by the breaches. And
it was unclear how often they have informed
citizens that their data might have been
compromised, the report added. Committee
member Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) said
federal agencies were losing too much information
and suffering too many breaches. "Americans expect
their private information to be protected," Waxman
said in a statement. "But the reality is that
federal security systems remain far too
vulnerable."
According to the report, recent incidents
included:
• The loss in March of a Defense Department
portable data drive that included personnel
records of more than 200,000 Marines who served
from 2001 to 2005. The report said the department
sent a notification letter to the Marine Cops and
the affected Marines.
• The loss of a Department of Education
magnetic tape containing the personal information
of more than 11,000 student loan borrowers.
• An unauthorized breach of an Air Force
database compromising personal data of more than
30,000 members of the military.
Other incidents of data loss were reported to the
committee by the departments of Housing and Urban
Development, Transportation, State, Treasury,
Commerce and Veterans Affairs.
The Commerce Department, for example, reported 214
incidents of lost or stolen computers at the
Census Bureau. Veterans Affairs officials reported
their data on two large spreadsheets covering
hundreds of security and privacy breaches, the
report said. In most cases, the report said, there
was little evidence that thieves used the data to
steal people's identities. However, the report did
cite one identity theft scheme last year by a
Health and Human Services contractor that affected
more than 1,500 people. A few incidents have
involved hackers looking to use citizens' personal
data for illegal purposes, the report said.
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