A laptop containing the private details of 2,400 US servicemen has been lost. According to experts at InfoWatch, it appears that the Pentagon has once again failed to make use of encryption to protect the private data of its employees.
Investigators are trying to locate the whereabouts of a missing laptop computer loaded with personal information on about 2,400 residents of the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. The computer was reported missing by Lincoln B.P. Management, which jointly manages housing communities on the base with the military.
Nothing is currently known of the missing computer, prompting the US military and Lincoln BP to inform those affected about the compromised data. Camp Pendleton is home to 45,000 marines and sailors and data on 2,400 people from three residential blocks were on the laptop.
“Its unclear why military institutions are so careless when it comes to information security. Of course, the sensitive data should have been encrypted, and if housing work was contracted out to an outside party then the security requirements should have been stipulated in the contract,” says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: Mercury News
