Security Breach
In May 2006, a laptop computer containing unencrypted social security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans was stolen from a Veterans Affairs analyst’s home. The analyst violated existing VA policy by removing the data from his workplace.
On 3 August 2006, a computer containing personal information in the clear on up to 38,000 veterans was stolen. The computer has since been recovered and on 5 August 2006, two men were charged with the theft. In early August 2006, a plan was announced to encrypt critical data on every laptop in the agency using disk encryption software.
Strict policies have also been enacted that require a detailed description of what a laptop will be used for and where it will be located at any given time. Encryption for e-mail had already been in use for some time but is now the renewed focus of internal security practices for sending e-mail containing patient information.
Read more about this topic: United States Department Of Veterans Affairs
Famous quotes containing the words security and/or breach:
“The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation, are,—1. Security to possessors; 2. Facility to acquirers; and, 3. Hope to all.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Good manners, to those one does not love, are no more a breach of truth, than “your humble servant,” at the bottom of a challenge is; they are universally agreed upon, and understand to be things of course. They are necessary guards of the decency and peace of society.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)