MAKING A LIST AND CHECKING IT TWICE……
Every time a massive data theft or a security breach happens in the Transaction Processing Industry, I keep kicking myself for not starting up a list of all such compromises that I once promised myself I would start! The most recent major security snafu, which I think is also the largest one to date, involved the theft of 26.5 million records containing the personal information of U.S. veterans.
TPAtlanta discussed this particular security breach in last month's issue. In fact, the day before we went to press last month, the stolen Veteran's Administration PC was recovered by authorities, although government officials are being extremely reticent about how and where this PC was recovered. They are only reporting that it appears, at least to date, that none of the veterans whose personal data was on this PC have been victimized. So, it seems yet another close call has been averted. Don't you feel safer now?
However, no sooner was this VA PC located than another public agency PC went AWOL!
A laptop containing personal information from thousands of blood donors - including Social Security numbers and medical information - was stolen from a Dallas, Texas office of the American Red Cross, but officials said the information was encrypted.
The data included matching names and birth dates of donors from Texas and Oklahoma, as well as donors' sexual and disease histories.
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Calvin D. Johnson, Publisher
publisher@tpatlanta.com
Trans Atlantic Systems, Inc.