ID thefts unlikely after SAIC records breach

[unhappycamper]

ID thefts unlikely after SAIC records breach
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 6, 2007 17:19:56 EST

It is unlikely that any identity theft occurred earlier this year as the result of a massive data breach of coded government health care records at a private defense contractor’s non-secure computer server, the firm’s executive vice president said recently.

“We haven’t seen any compromise attributable to our data breach,” said SAIC’s Arnold Punaro, referring to the May 29 discovery that nearly 900,000 records of troops, family members and other government employees had been exposed. “In the intervening months, we haven’t seen anything that would change our view.”

Punaro also disclosed that SAIC employees have been disciplined and, in some cases, lost their jobs over the exposure of the sensitive data.

“They violated our policies and violated our customers,” Punaro said. He called it an “unacceptable lapse. ... It never should have happened.”

Asked to elaborate, Punaro said that “a number of employees are no longer with us, and a number of employees were disciplined.” Punaro declined to say how many were fired or disciplined. The actions were taken, he said, “without regard to location or rank,” indicating that punishments weren’t limited to the Shalimar, Fla., location where the server was located.

He stressed that it was “our employees” who stored the data incorrectly.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_identitytheft_071106w/