In the latest data breach to hit the US military the private details of 100,000 servicemen were freely accessible on the Internet for over six months. Experts at InfoWatch stress that such leaks will continue to affect commercial and military organizations until managers acknowledge the need to incorporate systems that protect against insiders.
The US Navy and Marine Corps is trying to ascertain how the private data of over 100,000 aviators and air crew personnel ended up on the Internet where it was freely accessible for over 6 months, Gazeta.ru reports. The names and Social Security numbers of former and current servicemen appeared on the Naval Safety Center site last December. The breach went unnoticed until now.
“Such incidents are all too frequent in the military. Either they have a problem classifying data, or they can’t put an effective IT security policy into place. Whatever the case may be, the uncontrolled use of private data belonging to military personnel always seems to end in a breach. It has to be admitted, however, that the problem is affecting not just the military but all modern organizations including those in the commercial and state sectors,” believes Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
"Until managers acknowledge the need to introduce systems to protect against insiders, these kinds of incidents are going to occur with greater regularity."
Source: Gazeta.ru