The theft of private data belonging to 1,500 employees at the nuclear-weapons unit of the U.S. Energy Department went unreported for nine months it has been revealed. According to experts at InfoWatch, such organizations ought to have an automated system of leakage protection so as not to depend completely on their employees.
The U.S. Energy Department has announced a leak of private data affecting 1,500 employees working for the nuclear-weapons unit. The breach occurred last September, but the incident only came to light last week.
The information was stolen from the National Nuclear Security Administration center in New Mexico. The breach compromised the workers’ names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and other private details. The fact that the senior management at the Energy Department was not informed about the leak (the incident was kept quiet for nine months) has provoked a lot of criticism in political circles as well as at the department itself. The subsequent investigation of the incident could see a number of Energy Department officials losing their jobs.
“The leak wasn’t particularly large. The Energy Department can offer free credit services to monitor financial activity and explain what those affected by the leak need to do. However, the fact that all that wasn’t done nine months ago doesn’t help very much. Some officials are likely to lose their jobs over the incident and the department will have to undergo a series of checks and Senate investigations,” says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: New York Times
