THE BREACH BAND JUST PLAYS ON AND ON

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) just reported 100,000 employee records including Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information missing from a controlled area. It was on a hard drive at TSA headquarters, and the agency doesn’t even know if it was stolen, or still somewhere within the premises, according to an article on MSNBC. TSA is a division of the Homeland Security Department, and is responsible for the security of our transportation systems. The question you should all be asking is, just how far down the line does the incompetence go? I’m getting on a plane with my wife in the near future, and this doesn’t give me a warm feeling about our safety. But this same band has been playing the same tune since the ChoicePoint incident of February, 2005, and it does not look like there’s any chance of the music stopping. Since last checking the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Chronology of Data Breaches on April 12, there have been 17 new breaches with the loss of 242,264 personal records. Some of the newest breachers are companies you’ve heard of, like Caterpillar, Google Ads, Neiman Marcus, Albertsons and the Dept. of U.S. Agriculture. There were also a number of educational institutions losing sensitive data. Like a broken record, the only way to stop this is for consumers to take control over their names and private information, and at the same time you should be compensated when it is sold. Let Congress know what you think: House of Representatives; Senate.