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Missing TSA Hard Drive Has Data on 100,000 Employees

Press release, May 4, 2007: “Yesterday the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) became aware of a potential data security incident involving approximately 100,000 archived employment records of individuals employed by the agency from January 2002 until August 2005. An external hard drive containing personnel data (including name, social security number, date of birth, payroll information, bank account and routing information) was discovered missing from a controlled area at the TSA Headquarters Office of Human Capital. It is unclear at this stage whether the device is still within headquarters or was stolen. TSA immediately reported the incident to senior DHS and law enforcement officials and launched an investigation. TSA is treating this incident as a criminal matter and has asked the FBI to investigate. The U.S. Secret Service is also assisting in the forensic review of equipment and facilities. TSA is cooperating fully.” [Wired Blog]

  • Reminder: the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse maintains A Chronology of Data Breaches, January 2005-present, with information including: date the incident was made public, the name/location, the type of breach, and the number of records per incident.
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