thedrifter
07-18-06, 07:17 AM
July 17, 2006
Corps focuses on private-information safety
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
More than three months after a Marine major at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., lost a thumb drive containing the Social Security numbers of more than 200,000 Marines, the device remains missing.
Although there is no evidence that the information on the thumb drive — a removable device that stores data — has been compromised, Marine Corps headquarters’ manpower information systems branch is working on recommendations to the commandant about how the service can better safeguard personal information protected by the Privacy Act.
At the time of the thumb drive incident, the major was a student at the Monterey school and was doing a thesis project on retention. The data he was crunching included personal information on Marines who began or ended an active-duty contract between January 2001 and December 2005. Officials said the information likely wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands, since the drive was lost on a government installation.
But the loss began a string of incidents in the following weeks involving the loss of service members’ personal information.
In May, the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee was burglarized and a government laptop computer containing the Social Security numbers of 28.7 million active-duty service members and veterans, including National Guard and reserve members, was stolen. The computer was later recovered, and the FBI concluded the missing data were neither accessed nor compromised, according to a government investigation report released July 11.
On July 6, Navy officials discovered that personal information on more than 100,000 aviation sailors and Marines was available on the Naval Safety Center’s Web site. The discovery followed a recent incident in which Privacy Act information on more than 30,000 sailors was available on a civilian Web site that listed military members affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Cumulatively, these events have created a “political window” for the Marine Corps to examine new approaches to handling Privacy Act information in ways that would keep the data from falling into the wrong hands, according to Lt. Col. Mike Perry, head of the manpower information systems technology branch.
“We were aware of this a year and a half ago, but it’s amazing how it is now the topic du jour,” he said.
Perry said the Marine Corps’ use of Social Security numbers on just about every document, roster and list has been standard business practice for the Corps.
“People didn’t think twice about putting your SSN on a piece of paper routed through 15 layers of [Marine Corps] headquarters,” he said. “We’re a small organization, so I’d like to think we can be more nimble at being responsive to technological threats.”
Perry said the Corps is considering moving away from using Social Security numbers to identify Marines. Instead, the service may go back to the Vietnam-era use of service numbers or develop hybrid identification numbers that use the last four digits of a Social Security number, the Marine’s name and his military occupational specialty.
For the rest of this story, including how the Corps hopes to limit the potential for identity theft, check out this week’s issue of Marine Corps Times.
Ellie
Corps focuses on private-information safety
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
More than three months after a Marine major at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., lost a thumb drive containing the Social Security numbers of more than 200,000 Marines, the device remains missing.
Although there is no evidence that the information on the thumb drive — a removable device that stores data — has been compromised, Marine Corps headquarters’ manpower information systems branch is working on recommendations to the commandant about how the service can better safeguard personal information protected by the Privacy Act.
At the time of the thumb drive incident, the major was a student at the Monterey school and was doing a thesis project on retention. The data he was crunching included personal information on Marines who began or ended an active-duty contract between January 2001 and December 2005. Officials said the information likely wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands, since the drive was lost on a government installation.
But the loss began a string of incidents in the following weeks involving the loss of service members’ personal information.
In May, the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee was burglarized and a government laptop computer containing the Social Security numbers of 28.7 million active-duty service members and veterans, including National Guard and reserve members, was stolen. The computer was later recovered, and the FBI concluded the missing data were neither accessed nor compromised, according to a government investigation report released July 11.
On July 6, Navy officials discovered that personal information on more than 100,000 aviation sailors and Marines was available on the Naval Safety Center’s Web site. The discovery followed a recent incident in which Privacy Act information on more than 30,000 sailors was available on a civilian Web site that listed military members affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Cumulatively, these events have created a “political window” for the Marine Corps to examine new approaches to handling Privacy Act information in ways that would keep the data from falling into the wrong hands, according to Lt. Col. Mike Perry, head of the manpower information systems technology branch.
“We were aware of this a year and a half ago, but it’s amazing how it is now the topic du jour,” he said.
Perry said the Marine Corps’ use of Social Security numbers on just about every document, roster and list has been standard business practice for the Corps.
“People didn’t think twice about putting your SSN on a piece of paper routed through 15 layers of [Marine Corps] headquarters,” he said. “We’re a small organization, so I’d like to think we can be more nimble at being responsive to technological threats.”
Perry said the Corps is considering moving away from using Social Security numbers to identify Marines. Instead, the service may go back to the Vietnam-era use of service numbers or develop hybrid identification numbers that use the last four digits of a Social Security number, the Marine’s name and his military occupational specialty.
For the rest of this story, including how the Corps hopes to limit the potential for identity theft, check out this week’s issue of Marine Corps Times.
Ellie