Friday, August 04, 2006
FTC laptop theft puts 110 people at risk
The Federal Trade Commission, responsible for protecting Americans from fraud and identity theft, reported on Thursday the theft of two of its own computers with personal information about 110 people.
The incident was the latest in a series of recent thefts and data breaches involving government computers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said last month an external hard drive containing information on 26.5 million veterans was stolen. The Department of Energy discovered that personal information of about 1,500 employees and contractors was compromised in a cyberattack, and the Department of Agriculture said a hacker may have obtained data about 26,000 of its workers.
The FTC laptops belonged to staff attorneys who were using them to prepare an enforcement lawsuit, said Betsy Broder, the FTC assistant director for privacy and identity protection.
The computers, which were password-protected, contained names, addresses, Social Security numbers and some financial account numbers. The laptops were stolen from a locked vehicle last week.
"We wish this hadn't happened," Broder said. "No data security is perfect, and we're going to use this as a way to improve our practices and security."
The FTC sent letters to the 110 individuals, notifying them of the theft and offering one year of free credit monitoring.
The FTC is developing a new laptop computer security policy that would require an employee to remove any personal identifying information in the machine before it leaves an agency office. If the personal data was needed for an investigation, an FTC manager would have to approve allowing the laptop to leave the building, Broder said.
The incident was the latest in a series of recent thefts and data breaches involving government computers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said last month an external hard drive containing information on 26.5 million veterans was stolen. The Department of Energy discovered that personal information of about 1,500 employees and contractors was compromised in a cyberattack, and the Department of Agriculture said a hacker may have obtained data about 26,000 of its workers.
The FTC laptops belonged to staff attorneys who were using them to prepare an enforcement lawsuit, said Betsy Broder, the FTC assistant director for privacy and identity protection.
The computers, which were password-protected, contained names, addresses, Social Security numbers and some financial account numbers. The laptops were stolen from a locked vehicle last week.
"We wish this hadn't happened," Broder said. "No data security is perfect, and we're going to use this as a way to improve our practices and security."
The FTC sent letters to the 110 individuals, notifying them of the theft and offering one year of free credit monitoring.
The FTC is developing a new laptop computer security policy that would require an employee to remove any personal identifying information in the machine before it leaves an agency office. If the personal data was needed for an investigation, an FTC manager would have to approve allowing the laptop to leave the building, Broder said.
Labels: FTC
# posted by raveneye @ 9:02 AM 
