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:
“Is a Bill of Rights a security for [religious liberty]? If there were but one sect in America, a Bill of Rights would be a small protection for liberty.... Freedom derives from a multiplicity of sects, which pervade America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“Moral laws are set as a curb and restraint to these exorbitant desires, which they cannot be but by rewards and punishments, that will over-balance the satisfaction any one shall propose to himself in the breach of the law.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)