26.5 million vets' records, and the public servant brought the discs

[babylonsister]

home to 'do some work'? What, pray tell, could he do with those discs work-wise? IMO it seems like they were full of info only, not something you could 'work' off of. Could this be an instance where the admin wants to muddy the waters and he's their patsy, as are the vets now?

[w13rd0]

1. And as long as we're on the topic...

...this administration promises they wouldn't misuse or abuse the NSA spying information... What happens when an NSA employee brings home the records to "do a little work" and has them stolen? The information shouldn't be collected in the first place. Not only do I doubt their "good intentions", I find their claims that they keep the information secure dubious at best.

[babylonsister]

4. This info is necessary for the VA; I imagine it's one way to

track pensions, healthcare, etc. It's beyond disgusting that the info wasn't kept secure.
Not only that, but there was a lesser instance of this earlier this year. Why weren't they guarding what was going on more assiduously? Makes me VERY suspect!

Hackers access personal information on Pentagon's TRICARE servers
Hackers access personal information on TRICARE servers

By Daniel Pulliam
[e-mail]

Hackers gained access to the Pentagon's health insurance information systems, compromising the personal information of more than 14,000 people, the Defense Department announced Friday.

The intrusion of the TRICARE Management Activity public computer servers was discovered on April 5, but no information is available on when it occurred. A department official who requested anonymity said there was a delay of more than four weeks in releasing the information because of the time needed to determine the extent of the intrusion.

The hacked information included databases of names, Social Security numbers, the last four digits of credit card numbers, personal phone numbers, work and personal e-mail addresses and home addresses.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Service is participating in an investigation of the incident.

Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder said the department responded swiftly to the intrusion, immediately implementing enhanced security controls throughout the network and installing additional monitoring tools to improve the security of data files and networks.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33964&d ...

[mtnester]

2. Public servant and his/her "small break in at the home" are TOTALLY

related kids....totally.

This is collusion, coincidences like this are rare in the law enforcement world...so says my crime fighting father.

Hopefully, they retrieve this info before any harm is done.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Probably checking out their political status.

I bet we lose votes from the military because they never reach their destination.

[Lerkfish]

5. all of these "thefts" over the last couple years is datamining by the NSA

I'm convinced of it. remember all those credit card records that kept getting 'stolen' from bank after bank after bank, but they kept reassuring us nothing bad would come of it? like this story, on the tv they're saying, yes they were stolen, but there's no reason to believe they'll be used for bad purposes.


um...right.

[acmejack]

6. That is a massive amount of data.

Think of the media required for it! What was it resident on, did this anonymous employee bring home a truck full of CDs? A crate of DVDs? There is something very screwy here!

[unc70]

11. Not really that much data -- a DVD or two, or a laptop internal

With only 25M (mega- or milliion) records/individuals, then you get about 40 bytes/characters of data PER person for each 1GB (gigabyte or 1000 MB) of disk storage. You can typically store 4-8GB on one side of a DVD (think about backing up your home PC). An low-end laptop will have 60-200GB on its system drive. (equivalent about 5000 to 10000 characters of info on each of them.)

This type of data (name, address, etc.) takes very little computer space. Things like movies take a lot of storage space (remember downloading Colbert). Remember that your digital camera probably has a 512MB or 1GB memory card.

[hunter]

13. You can buy a 250 Gigabyte external hard drive at CostCo for $149.

It's a new world. You could easily store the social security number, name, address, phone number, age, etc., of everyone in the United States on a hard drive this size. Fits nicely in a brief case. Plug it into a USB port, copy some files, and take your work home with you.



http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11074449&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Who in the hell is this person they are saying did this?

Why haven't they named any names yet?

[babylonsister]

9. Interesting, because I haven't heard who other than an employee

actually 'did' this. I have heard he brought the discs home to 'do some work' :eyes: , and also that he lives in a less-than-stellar part of town. Begs many questions, very few answers, other than we're all potentially screwed if we're in the 'vet' category, as my husband and many relatives are.

[htuttle]

8. Or maybe he was a spy for insurance telemarketers

I imagine that 26+ million valid veterans addresses would be quite valuable to a company selling bogus 'veterans life insurance' or something.

:shrug:

[babylonsister]

10. That would be reassuring; I somehow don't think so. nt

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. I once worked as a professional money manager

It was a fireable offense to remove any client information from the office. If you couldn't get your work done during normal hours there was something wrong. There simply was no need to work long hours or take work home. I know there were several reasons for this policy and they served to protect both the company and its clients.

It seems like a reasonable precaution to put in place whenever anyone is hadling sensitive data that could lead to widespread identity theft.