U.S. Service Personnel Data Stolen

BStrunk writes "I was reading the news this morning on Reuters, when I stumbled across this article: U.S. Service Personnel Personal Data Stolen In the article, an official violated policy by taking the detailed personal information of thousands of active and reserve troops to his personal home, storing it on a personal computer, that was later stolen. In an age where domestic phone calls are monitored, a government employee was allowed to walk out of a government installation with the data on thousands of American citizens to store on an insecure personal computer? Doesn't that seem strange to you? This is a real failure, in my opinion, in government protection of its citizens. Layers of encryption and protected access was successfully bypassed to make the theft of this information as simple as stealing a home pc. Now, not only do service personnel currently serving have to worry about IEDs and being fired upon, but they are now subject to possible identity theft. A real failure. After this, how could one have faith enough to serve an inept institution?"

Comments

Re:Strange question

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, rants and opinions belong in posts, informative summaries belong on the main page. I don't go to slashdot to get raved at by someone who doesn't understand the difference.

That being said, I agree this was a failure, but not of the U.S. governemnt. This was a failure by the analyist who didn't feel it manditory to follow the rules. Every good sercurity measure begins and ends with trust. The Office of Veteran Affairs was betrayed just the same as everyone else in this instance.