Data Breach with National Implications

The National Archives is privy to a wide range of sensitive information. It is the nation’s official record keeper. Now the National Archives has had a security breach that has far reaching, national implications:

“The National Archives lost a computer hard drive containing massive amounts of sensitive data from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House operating procedures, congressional officials said Tuesday.”

link: Sensitive data missing from National Archives

This security breach goes beyond the possibility of identity theft. Among the data could be sensitive data that foreign nations would covet. One wonders whether security procedures included data encryption so that the hard drive data had additional security.

The amount and nature of the data remains undetermined to a point. There is a question as to whether this hard drive was “accidentally” misplaced. Surely the security protocols and procedures at the National Archives are stringent enough that hard drives just don’t become lost in the system somewhere.

Catherine Forsythe