Ohio governor and his IT manager
There’s a small addition to the story.
A missing computer backup tape containing personal information on state employees also holds the names and Social Security numbers of 225,000 taxpayers, Gov. Ted Strickland said.
The tape, stolen last week from a state intern’s car, was previously revealed to hold the names and Social Security numbers of all 64,000 state employees, as well as personal data for tens of thousands of others, including Ohio’s 84,000 welfare recipients.
What? What?
Taking a backup home sounds like an IT policy created by someone who based their knowledge of data security from TV and movies.
OT comment here.
Hey, there seems to be some sort of problem with the blog, although I am not sure what. When I come in from Google Reader, I get the title and a blank article. When I click on the title, I then get the full article.
#2 I have the same problem, thought I was going mad!
Gadzooks
For a mere fifty bucks you can get whole disk encryption on portable USB drivers, CD or DVD, up to 25 Gigabytes.
I use Cryptainer from Cypherix. 448 bit Blowfish encryption.
When you shut down this virtual drive, it’s one big file, that’s easy to move around, and totally secure.
IT for a small real estate office…I take the tapes home. Too expensive to hire a company to handle two DAT tapes every night.
The odds of whomever stole the tapes knowing what they are and posessing the proper drive to handle them installed in a server with Backup Exec or whatever, and knowing how to restore the data…is pretty slim.
Doesn’t excuse the loss, though.
#’s 2&3 Me too but from iGoogle.
Here’s the deal. Obviously, for a multitude of reasons, our personal information is not safe. Some states allow consumers to initiate a credit freeze which goes a long way to protect consumers in case of stolen identity.
Here’s a clip that helps explain it: Also known as a security freeze, a credit freeze is essentially a lockdown on your credit report and score. It blocks new lenders from accessing your credit file without your permission. Since most credit issuers require a credit check before granting credit, the credit freeze should block most unauthorized attempts to obtain new credit in your name.
The financial lobbies have done much to keep these laws off the books because they want consumers to be able to make impulse credit decisions. Problem is- it makes it easy for someone with your information to get credit in your name. But they don’t care about that.
Ohio is not one of the 20+ states that allow a credit freeze. Good luck to you.
For those of you in states without the ability to implement a credit freeze, contact your representatives and let them know you want them to do something about it before you find yourself in the same sorry position.
Am I the only person here who thinks 84,000 is an incredibly low number of welfare recipients? I lived in Ohio for 30 years and I feel like there were that many in my town alone?
i’ve been terrified of this type of mishap , and now as a resident of ohio i can now experience the full consequences of politcal blundering….
my feelings on this, all parties invovled should be taken out and shot, and tar and feathering should return for politicos who blunder in such a manner…
🙁
#5, Mark, that’s a good product. Another is Truecrypt which has a cool built-in plausible deniability feature and supports device hosted volumes.
And talk about luck, I hit the google jackpot just now — one word, only one link — truecryp. I’d better go buy that lottery ticket right away! 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCrypt
Blame it on Consuelo, the cleaning lady.
Am I the only one who thinks and INTERN should not be A) able to handle the backups without a damn good reason, and B) leaving them in a (I presume) unattended vehicle. Whatever happened to the briefcase handcuffed to the wrist for that kind of thing? I do it all the time and only have mild, ahem, “hassles” with airport security and local police.
Is Micky mouse the Governer or the IT manager?