Intern Loses 800,000 Social Security Numbers

destinyland writes "A 22-year-old intern said today he's the 'scapegoat' for the loss of over 800,000 social security numbers - or roughly 7.3% of the people in the entire state of Ohio. From the article: 'The extent of my instructions on what to do after I removed the tapes from the tape drive and took the tapes out of the building was, bring these back tomorrow.' Three months into his $10.50-an-hour internship, he left the tapes in his car overnight — unencrypted — and they were stolen. Interestingly, the intern reports to a $125-an-hour consultant — and was advised not to tell the police that sensitive information had been stolen, which initially resulted in his becoming the prime suspect for the theft. Ohio's Inspector General faults the lack of data encryption — and too many layers of consultants. But their investigation (pdf) revealed that Ohio's Office of Management and Budget had been using the exact same procedure for over eight years."

Comments

Re:prime suspect

[FudRucker]

my thoughts exactly, he was probably paid off (inside job) playing dumb is just an easy way to sandbag & damage control...

Just SS numbers

[john_is_war]

Just imagin how much information would be available if the RealID act was in effect. This is precisely the reason I don't trust the government with my information: they can't keep it safe.

Re:Negligence

[HamsterRabies]

Very nice commentary. I really see the points here, though I dont completely agree with them.
Thanks
Hrabies