From: InformationWeek/Government
Government agencies have inconsistently responded to both cyber and non-cyber incidents, a watchdog group says.
Federal agencies need to do a better job handling data breaches. The number of security incidents involving personally identifiable information has more than doubled just in the past four years, a new report by the Government Accountability Office says.
The US government collects large quantities of personally identifiable information, including taxpayer data, census data, Social Security information, and patient health information. But despite agencies’ efforts to secure this information, incidents involving personal data — both cyber and non-cyber — have skyrocketed from 10,481 in 2009 to 25,566 in 2013, said the federal watchdog agency.
One incident cited in the GAO report took place in July 2013, when hackers stole information like Social Security numbers, birth dates, locations, and bank account numbers on more than 104,000 individuals from a Department of Energy system. Another incident in March 2012 exposed personally identifiable information on 2,300 employees after a laptop computer was stolen from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Leave a Reply