Posted on 03/30/2006 8:58:15 AM PST by APRPEH
WASHINGTON — A portable drive with personal information on more than 207,750 Marines was lost earlier this month, possibly jeopardizing those troops’ credit records and privacy.
In a message sent out to Marines, officials said the information was encoded and so far they’ve seen no evidence the information is being abused. But, because the data could be used for criminal purposes, they are asking all Marines to be on guard for signs of identity theft.
According to officials from the Manpower Information Technology Branch, the portable drive was part of a Naval Postgraduate School research project. The information was being used in research about the effectiveness of re-enlistment bonuses, but it was lost in a computer lab on campus in Monterey, Calif.
The drive contained the names, Social Security numbers, marital status and enlistment contract details for enlisted Marines on active duty between January 2001 and December 2005.
School officials were notified that the data had been lost March 14. The servicewide message about the missing information was sent out 10 days later.
“Odds are if somebody finds it they’re not going to be able to read it, because the information is in an unusual file format,” said Lt. Col. Mike Perry, head of the information technology branch. “But we will have a very thorough look at our current policies on releasing that information.”
Clay Dubberly, infrastructure chief for the branch, said the personal files are not readily available, and researchers must go through three layers of checks before they can access the databases.
Officials are still reviewing exactly what information was on the drive and who was affected, he said. They do not know how many Marines whose information was compromised may have already separated from the service.
In the message, officials recommended affected Marines visit www.consumer.gov/idtheft to learn how to put a fraud alert on their credit files and receive a free credit report.
Last summer, more than 33,000 active-duty Air Force officers had their personal information compromised when someone hacked into an online career management program that saved their birth date, Social Security number and other personal data.
An investigation by postgraduate school officials into the loss is ongoing.
In addition, manpower officials are looking into the incident and considering additional ways of notifying affected Marines about the data loss.
Equifax - 888-766-0008
Experian - 888-397-3742
Trans Union - 800-680-7289
Active duty soldiers may also take advantage of a 2 year active duty alert.
Marines and the families should demand better treatment than just advice. I would like to think the credit bureaus would respond to a Department of Defense request to include fraud alerts on each affected person's credit file.
Ping yer buds
Dangit, Bob! Pay attention when I forget to ping ya!
One of the unfortunate down sides to improved, portable, mass data storage devices...they can go missing, either stolen or lost, because of the human factor.
This data should have never been allowed on a portable storage device for security purposes, IMHO.
Brianiacs...the lot of'em...
They do like Brian, but I wouldn't call them Brianiacs.
Does that mean the Marine Corps Hymn will be replaced by Brian's Song? [ba dum bum!]
hahahahahahah...oops.
Brainiacs...being those in the Naval Department that allowed for this sensitive information to be on such a device.
But hey, Marines.."always look on the bright side of life..."
Siemper Fi.
I knew what you meant. :-) And I agree, this was not a very good plan. Thank God the data was encrypted, at least!
It said encoded, not encrypted.
It appears it was in some kind of database file. Try userid 'scott', password 'tiger'.
Oops. Good catch. I misread it.
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