At least this time it wasn't the governments fault...


Personal records of 35,000 veterans stolen in burglary

http://www.scmagazine.com/us/newslet...070829/733792/

Jim Carr Aug 28 2007 15:31
The burglary of a U.S. prisoners of war (POW) support group's offices has
netted thieves the personal information, including addresses and Social
Security numbers, of more than 35,000 veterans and their families.


The break-in occurred at the American Ex-Prisoners of War's Arlington,
Texas, office on Aug. 11 or 12. Police records indicate thieves stole
several hard drives in addition to mail, checks and paper-based files.

Organization officials said the stolen records contained information on all
of the group's 35,000 members and their families, including addresses,
dates of birth, Social Security numbers and claims data.

The group is working with authorities to catch those responsible for the
burglary. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is also investigating the
thefts.

The group's leaders have urged members to watch for unauthorized activity,
such as recently opened credit card accounts created with their Social
Security number.

"[Few] organizations have a holistic plan for addressing data security and
privacy," said Phil Neray, vice president at database monitoring software
vendor Guardium. "Most have informal procedures, and certain aspects of
procedures that are considered best practices are not implemented."

For example, few organizations encrypt hard drives, Neray said.

"This is the single biggest thing an organization can do to prevent theft
of a hard drive, and it alone can stop the theft of a hard drive from
turning into a security breach," he said. "In many cases, people are
storing information on ordinary Windows servers in an office somewhere…They
need to put the same type of security controls around that information that
a bank would put around its customers' financial information."

The American Ex-Prisoners of War, founded in 1942, provides a variety of
social services to former U.S. POWs, civilian internees and their families.