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Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master

NRT-0262 Personal Data On More than Half-a-Million US Service Personnel Put At Risk:

A Pentagon contractor may have compromised the personal details of over half a million US service personnel and their relatives. Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced on 20 July that: "Personal information of certain uniformed service members, family members, and others was placed at risk for potential compromise while being processed by SAIC" because the data was sent over the Internet without use of any encryption. The data - which was held under a health benefits program for the members and their families - included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates, and "limited" health information. There is no special reason to believe it was intercepted by "the possibility cannot be ruled out," according to SAIC, who reportedly first became aware of the security lapse after being notified by US Air Force personnel in Europe that they had detected sensitive information being transmitted in the clear across the Internet. SAIC reportedly expects to spend $7-9 million dealing with the consequences, including dedicated security assistance and an incident response center for those affected. The company says it has "placed a number of employees on administrative leave" pending the outcome of investigations.

(www.theregister.co.uk, 23Jul07)

Last Modified: Tuesday, 31-Jul-2007 23:16:53 EDT