Nextgov - MP3 privacy breach exposes government's privacy liability - 0 views
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Karl Wabst on 21 Apr 09Reports on Tuesday of a New Zealand man who purchased a secondhand MP3 player containing the personal information of U.S. soldiers highlighted the federal government's continuing inability to protect private information on unauthorized, third-party storage devices. New Zealander Chris Ogle bought a used MP3 player in Oklahoma about a year ago, according to New Zealand's public television station, ONE News. A few weeks ago, when he plugged the player into his computer to download a song, Ogle found 60 military files stored on the device, which included names, addresses, and phone and Social Security numbers of U.S. soldiers. The files also contained what appears to be a mission briefing and lists of equipment deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the files are dated 2005. ONE News reported that some of the phone numbers on the player are still active. "The more I look at it, the more I see and the less I think I should be," Ogle told ONE News. Ogle offered to return the MP3 player to U.S. officials if requested. Privacy experts say the breach is just the latest example of the federal government's inability to manage the security risk posed by removable storage devices. In November the Defense Department banned the use of removable storage devices after reports that hardware that can be inserted into a USB drive could infect the computer with viruses and worms. A Pentagon spokesman said the military is aware of the latest report form New Zealand, but does not know of any action the department has taken. Michael Maloof, chief technology officer for the information security firm TriGeo Network Security in Post Falls, Idaho, said individuals do not view devices like MP3 players as computers that can store large amounts of private data. "Myself and security experts have been saying for some time that phones and MP3 players are really mass storage devices," he said. The military should "ban all mass storage devices. It may make some people unhappy, but you see the