Published: 2006-07-28
The laptops were stolen from two different Navy recruiting stations in New Jersey. This week the Navy disclosed the thefts and revealed that the laptops also contained approximately 4,000 Social Security numbers. SSNs are frequently used as a starting point for identity theft, and are highly prized by criminals. This is the third public incident with the Navy in recent months.
The disclosure follows a several other high-profile data security issues, including 100,000 personal records of sailors' personal data appearing on a website, and a similar but separate incident of 28,000 records with personal details of sailors and their families.
The incidents reveal the danger of military agencies using portable computers containing sensitive information that do not employ even the most basic forms of data encryption.
Just this week, the Army revealed it will finally require hardware-enabled strong encryption on all new computer systems it purchases. Full-drive data encryption has existed for years but has not seen widespread adoption in many of the areas where it is needed most.
Posted by: Kelly Martin
