A laptop has been stolen from the car of a US Transport Department employee. The computer contained the personal details of 133,000 Florida residents. The agency says it cannot afford to pay for credit monitoring, which means all those affected face the threat of ID theft. According to analysts at InfoWatch, government agencies are now the most vulnerable to data breaches.
A government laptop that contained the personal data of 133,000 Florida residents has been stolen. A spokesman for the US Transport Department announced the theft on August 10, two weeks after the incident took place and five days after it was discovered that the computer contained private information.
The government agency is currently informing those affected. The employee who was assigned the laptop did not report the theft immediately, thinking he had left the computer behind at a meeting. However, police found that a lock on the agent's car had been tampered with.
An investigation found that the stolen computer contained information on 80,670 commercial driver's licenses in the Miami-Dade County area, 42,800 Florida residents with pilot's licenses and about 9,500 commercial or regular driver's licenses in the Tampa area. All the records included Social Security numbers.
The Transport Department representative said it was unlikely his agency could afford to pay for credit monitoring for all those affected, even though they needed the service. The official added that the agency has assigned 10 agents to assist the local police investigation, and is offering a $10,000 reward for the return of the laptop.
“Government agencies are perhaps just as vulnerable to data breaches as financial organizations. Government bodies accumulate huge amounts of private records, but at the same time they are the least protected against data leaks. Of course, such agencies could simply ignore the threats – people can hardly refuse to use their services. But the situation will have to change. It is highly likely that in the near future the US will announce a set of standards that will require all sensitive data to be encrypted. This will be an effective solution to the problem,” believes Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: USA Today
