Data breach could affect 60,000 GIs, civilians - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Data breach could affect 60,000 GIs, civilians

The Corps of Engineers is investigating the recent loss of an external hard drive that could pose identify theft problems for as many as 60,000 soldiers and Army civilians.

Maj. Mark Young, a Corps of Engineers spokesman in Washington, said the security breach occurred in the command’s Southwestern Division, which is headquartered in Dallas, in early November.

“Right now the focus is on investigating [the incident], alerting people who may be affected, and taking measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

Information stored on the missing hard drive includes personal data, such as names and Social Security numbers, on a number of current and former soldiers and some civilian employees, according to information provided by the Southwest Division.

Most of the affected population includes soldiers whose files went before the Fiscal 2008 sergeant first class and 2008 master sergeant promotion boards, and the 2007 colonel promotion board and the 2009 lieutenant colonel command board.

“Those who may be impacted by this incident will be notified electronically through the Army Knowledge Online Web site, or by mail,” according to a statement issued by Southwest Division Nov. 13.

Officials said that as of that date, there were no known cases of identify theft associated with the lists.

This is not the first time that the personal information on the 30,812 soldiers considered by the 2008 sergeant first class board has been compromised.

Just weeks after the board adjourned in February 2008, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command determined that an advance version of the list made available to commanders and their designated representatives had been improperly posted on the Internet.

Within days of that finding, CID officials also determined that a listing of 20,048 soldiers considered by the 2005 master sergeant board had been compromised.

Those findings were particularly troubling because until last year, commander copies of lists not only included the names of all soldiers selected and not selected by a board, but their Social Security numbers.

The Army continues to allow designated commanders access to select and non-select lists, but does not include any part of a soldier’s Social Security number on the lists.

Database security and the threat of identify theft is a major problem in both the government and private sector, according to the Open Security Foundation.

According to data maintained by this nonprofit organization, there have been 363 major incidents this year of data breaches involving personal identifying information.

Included are the compromise of personal data in 6,675 files maintained by the Boston University Army ROTC battalion, and 130,000 soldier files maintained by the Army National Guard.

The Federal Trade Commission identity theft Web site provides helpful information for people who believe their personal information has been compromised.