TSA computer hard drive missing

[babylonsister]

Source: AP

TSA computer hard drive missing

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 53 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Transportation Security Administration is trying to find a missing computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 employee records.

Authorities realized Thursday the hard drive was missing from a controlled area at TSA headquarters.

"It is unclear at this stage whether the device is still within headquarters or was stolen," the agency said in a statement Friday.

TSA has asked the FBI and Secret Service to investigate, the statement said.

The hard drive contained information on employees who worked for the
Homeland Security agency from January 2002 until August 2005.

TSA, a division of the Homeland Security Department, employs about 50,000 people and is responsible for security of the nation's transportation systems, including airports and train stations.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070504/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/tsa_missing_data;_ylt=A0SOwluR0DtGu2kB_xqs0NUE

[AlCzervik]

1. the government puts rfid chips in passports so why no do the same with govt.

issued laptops?

[Captain Angry]

3. Because you'd need a scanner.

If they can't stop somebody from removing a HDD or losing a notebook, a technology used for inventory won't help.

The real question is why in the hell is any kind of data allowed to get itself onto a portable device?

That kind of data should be on a diskless workstation, with all data stored remotely, and provided across an encrypted network fiber-optic connection.

No local data, no wiretapping, no middleman attacks, secure.

[smtpgirl]

7. Yeah, where is the secur-link or keyfob?

If it is so secret, laptops wouldn't be issued anyway. If it was, an encryption table would need to be added to the laptop, before logging on.

The user would have to go through a series of authentication logons, plus the keyfob or secur-link key.

This is one more example of Bush incompetence!!!!!!!!!!!!


IMPEACH THE WHOLE ADMINISTRATION

[smtpgirl]

8. I have worked at a secure location

they are regular PC's that have locked removable HDD's that are removed every night.

They also had thin clients, which are basically a window interface on a terminal that had no HDD, basically a dumb terminal.

Thin clients have no HDD, so the work that is produced goes directly on the network.

[Captain Angry]

10. That's exactly right.

Security isn't hard if you do it right, and with the budget these guys have, it ought to be invincible.

[smtpgirl]

12. BUT, the Gang that couldn't shoot straight is at the helm

and don't forget about Dark Dick, that guy is pure evil, waiting to hear more from him, once he comes out of the undisclosed location.

[Captain Angry]

14. I disagree in this case.

The Republicans are so excited about outsourcing everything to private contractors that we get these situations.

They choose people to do these jobs based on loyalty and kickback, not on capability.


If you want the most secure network in the world, ask the drug cartels. When you have a literally unlimited budget, you can buy the best gear, and best people in the world.

[smtpgirl]

15. You know what Captain Angry, I agree with you totally

I think the drug cartels do have a secure network. On what you just have stated, we are on dangerous ground with these rubes, they have no tech about them, just loyalty, and that is a mix of total disfunctionality far as I am concerned.

So much for the war against drugs (SHEESH, what a TOTAL FARCE) the drug network is more knowledgeable and more savvy than the federal govt.

[Captain Angry]

17. The drug network doesn't change leadership or vision every 2-8 years.

They have stability, and no need to smile while doing their work.

I have to assume that the smtp in your name means you know a little about the networking business. :-)

I don't understand, how with the technology this country has, with the money it has, how we don't have instant secure voting.

We waste so much time and money by using contractors that it kills any real progress. The Feds should be able to put the computing power they have to discovering a cure for AIDS, cancer, etc.

We can be so powerful, but so blind.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Check the trunk of Karl Rove's vehicle

[shance]

4. How does hard drive leave the most protected, restricted, secured spaces in the world?

Answer: It doesn't.

[DemSoccerMom]

5. Yeah,

you have to imagine my complete and udder shock that something like this could happen. :sarcasm:

I agree w/ PP. Check Rove's trunk.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Why does somebody with a laptop need to have 100,000

employee records anyway? Why isn't the data spread out amongst many puters like it is in bittorrent, or why isn't it only on secured servers?? Who the hell needs to look at 100,000 employee records in their motorcar or in their parlor for that matter??? Just who the hell needs to manipulate these records WHEN THEY ARE NOT IN THEIR OFFICES AT THE TSA???

Answer: NO ONE.

[smtpgirl]

9. that would be classified as a server at that point

maybe a db server.

[smtpgirl]

11. Because the REAL Bush govt. is short of nothing

just like the last 6 years of the bullshit we have been living.

We have had smoke up our asses long enough.

But I dare not have a pot seed in my car or have a wiccan symbol anywhere in my house.

[Captain Angry]

13. Ask Fidelity.

Why did they have customer investment records on a notebook PC? Why did the person entrusted with the data not have it handcuffed to him? Why was somebody who was dumb enough to leave a notebook PC in a car, given one in the first place?

[smtpgirl]

16. These people are like users at any ABC company

just like ANY computer user anywhere!!!

Dumb as shit!!!

[file83]

22. It's a missing hard drive - not a computer. Probably a "hot swap" drive that can

easily be pulled out of the server rack in case it crashes and needs to be replaced. Which is probably what happened, but some dipshit forgot to fill out the paper work so they think it's missing, but really, it's sitting in someone's desk drawer under a pile take out food boxes and miscellaneous computer wiring.

If someone wanted to take that data with no one looking, I doubt they'd remove something physical that could be missed. They'd copy it to their own storage device so no one would notice.

[AnOhioan]

18. 154,525,715

TOTAL number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches


http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm#CP


Once again, personal info goes "lost" or is stolen.

[WePurrsevere]

19. "... a division of the Homeland Security Department"??

Unflippin' believable... the much touted (BuSh*) department that is responsible for security of the nation's transportation system can't even keep the personal information of their employees safe. Oh yeah I feel soooo much safer now... NOT. :eyes:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

20. Security in much of Government IT is abysmal.

Now, Homeland Security IS coming down hard on Defense Contractors, in association with the Army and the DoD. But in a lot of government agencies, the last 12 years have seen IT underfunded, overall. Also, you must remember that TSA is part of DHS, and DHS was thrown together, with contracts for things like IT just handed out like party favors, complete with hats. Silly hats.

Also, with all the government hard drives and laptops that have gone missing, there is also another possibility that must be seriously considered:

Someone is paying people on the inside and paying them well, for data they can get their hands on. Do not discount this possibility. The frequency of these disappearances go way beyond coincidence.

[kineneb]

21. something fishy about all the lost data and drives

I think you may be right. There just seems to be too many "lost or stolen" laptops/harddrives with "sensitive information" for it all to be just coincidence. Especially when the means to make the data/hardware secure already exists in the non-governmental computer world. This goes beyond sloppy.

Excuse me while I adjust my tinfoil hat...
:tinfoilhat:

[file83]

23. I'm convinced these "stories" are just mass conditioning exercises to prepare us all

for the "solution": implanted security chips containing all your personal data including biometrics. They'll sell it as a way to protect ourselves from identity theft and/or terrorists.

We'll all eat it up.

[Orsino]

24. We keep ceding the right for government to collect more data...

...and they keep fucking it up. When do we get serious about securing private data?

[Zhade]

25. It seems like goverment hard drives go missing every few months. WHY?

NT!