Laptop Safe
Just when the uproar over the massive data loss at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs is dying down a bit, two more federal agencies — the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture — have reported bad news about data they hold being compromised.
Two days ago, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture disclosed that a hacker sometime in early June compromised the computer systems at the agency, possibly making off with the names, Social Security numbers and photos of 26,000 Washington-area employees and contractors, according to an Associated Press story.
This included the Secretary of Agriculture.
Yesterday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said two FTC laptops were stolen from a locked vehicle. The laptops are said to hold personal data on 100 people, including their names, Social Security numbers and according to an agency spokesman, “in some cases, finacial account numbers.”
The devastating irony is that the individuals whose personal data is on these laptops are said to be “defendants in current and past FTC cases,” according to the FTC spokesperson. “The agency was sending letters to them with information about how to limit their risk of identity theft and offering a year of free credit monitoring.”
Is there a Burglar’s Guild with a special leadership category for stealing laptops from bureaucrats?
Big Brother is a punk ass drunkard who can’t deal out correct change and barely knows how to operate his hidden camera that he bought off ebay. He’s too stupid and disorderly to be too scary. It’s the people who steal from him that I’m worried about.
How phony can you get. “Free” credit monitoring for a year. WOW.
Why not invest some money on tracking down these ID thieves instead. Since the vast majority of them use ID stolen from one jurisdiction in another jurisdiction, usually crossing state lines, this should be a Federal responsibility. Local police departments and prosecutors don’t have the resources available to find, let alone prosecute inter-state fraud.