Agencies’ biggest IT security threat: employees
May 31, 2006
By TIM KAUFFMAN
Federal employees pose a bigger threat to private data than the computer hackers most security systems are designed to thwart, privacy officials and lawmakers said.
Many agencies are vulnerable to the same type of security breach that occurred most recently at the Veterans Affairs Department, said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group concerned with technology’s impact on privacy. In the VA case, which was announced publicly May 22, a laptop containing names, Social Security numbers and birthdates of 26.5 million veterans was stolen from the home of an employee who was working on a project.
Source: http://federaltimes.com/
Federal employees pose a bigger threat to private data than the computer hackers most security systems are designed to thwart, privacy officials and lawmakers said.
Many agencies are vulnerable to the same type of security breach that occurred most recently at the Veterans Affairs Department, said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group concerned with technology’s impact on privacy. In the VA case, which was announced publicly May 22, a laptop containing names, Social Security numbers and birthdates of 26.5 million veterans was stolen from the home of an employee who was working on a project.
Source: http://federaltimes.com/