>>>>The solution of course is to put everyone's data, including digital photos and biometric information, into a national database, and preferably to issue National ID cards that broadcast the information. That way, in short order, everyone's info will be in the public domain, and no one will need to steal it anymore...
GIVE A HEADACHE, SELL AN ASPIRIN.
VA To Build Genetic Database
April 25, 2006
The Department of Veterans Affairs soon will ask veterans to volunteer their DNA for a genetic database, the Gainesville Sun reports.
The VA plans in fiscal year 2007 to collect the first 100,000 DNA samples to learn about costs and other practical issues related to launching the database. The database later could expand to millions of VA patients.
Samples would be taken only with permission, according to VA officials, and the department plans to create guidelines for handling a person's genetic profile while using it in research and to identify an individual's risk of health problems, the Sun reports.
VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has established a panel, which includes geneticists, to work on issues regarding the project. "There are so many questions of ethics and privacy that we are not going to proceed down that trail without first assessing the risks and benefits to our veterans," Nicholson said last month in a speech. "But we know from past experience that once we determine that a VA program is in the best interest of our veterans, we move forward with all the resources we can muster."
The NIH, CDC and other research organizations and universities already have created genetic databases for research, but none is as large as what the VA plans to build, several experts said (Reiss, Gainesville Sun, 4/24).
> The Department of Veterans Affairs soon will ask veterans to volunteer their DNA for a genetic database
Subject to the same airtight security, no doubt... /sarc
Worth noting....
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1531765
Co. loses personal data of 1.3M customers
Excerpt:
Thursday, June 01, 2006 7:24 a.m. ET
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Equipment containing the names and social security numbers of about 1.3 million Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp. borrowers has disappeared, company officials said.
There was no evidence the information had been misused, but Texas Guarantee said it said it would notify the affected borrowers by mail starting this week.
"It was not a security breach where someone hacked into our system," said Sue McMillin, Texas Guaranteed's president and chief executive.
The piece of equipment, which the company did not identify, was lost May 24. Officials said encrypted electronic files containing the data were sent to Hummingbird Ltd., which helps companies manage large amounts of information. A Hummingbird employee downloaded, decrypted and stored the files on a piece of equipment that was later lost.
http://www.tgslc.org/resources/customerdata.cfm