bytes and ballots

According to a U.S. House Government Reform Committee report (quotes here from a Los Angeles Times story):

Incidents of lost or stolen personal data at federal government agencies are more widespread than previously thought, affecting all 19 federal departments and millions of citizens since 2003, according to a congressional report released Friday.

Most of the nearly 800 incidents of data losses have never been publicly reported. The "vast majority" were not accidental misplacements, but rather outright thefts of computers or data disks containing sensitive information such as Social Security numbers. In some cases the data were used inappropriately by employees and private contractors, the report said.

And here are some of the specifics:

According to the report, recent incidents included:

• The loss in March of a Defense Department portable data drive that included personnel records of more than 200,000 Marines who served from 2001 to 2005. The report said the department sent a notification letter to the Marine Cops and the affected Marines.

• The loss of a Department of Education magnetic tape containing the personal information of more than 11,000 student loan borrowers.

• An unauthorized breach of an Air Force database compromising personal data of more than 30,000 members of the military.

Other incidents of data loss were reported to the committee by the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, State, Treasury, Commerce and Veterans Affairs.

The Commerce Department, for example, reported 214 incidents of lost or stolen computers at the Census Bureau. Veterans Affairs officials reported their data on two large spreadsheets covering hundreds of security and privacy breaches, the report said.

In most cases, the report said, there was little evidence that thieves used the data to steal people's identities. However, the report did cite one identity theft scheme last year by a Health and Human Services contractor that affected more than 1,500 people.

A few incidents have involved hackers looking to use citizens' personal data for illegal purposes, the report said.