GAO Finds Feds Ineffective in Checking Identity Theft

The American government is extremely casual when it comes to safeguarding an individual's personal data. A study released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the last week of February 2008 revealed that just 2 out of its 24 agencies have enforced all the security specifications prescribed by the Office of Management and Budget in 2007 to defend private data, reported NETWORKWORLD on February 26, 2008.

As per the GAO report, the Treasury and Transportation Departments have enforced the maximum security whereas the Small Business Administration and National Science Foundation are weakest.

Since the federal government receives and deals with data of people in progressively different methods, it is imperative that it makes sure that privacy rights of its citizens are valued and that private data is well safeguarded, the senators wrote a letter and forwarded it to 24 Cabinet offices on February 22, 2008, reported FCWCOM on February 25, 2008.

The GAO alleged that out of the 24 key departments it reviewed, 22 have made plans needing for personally recognizable data to be coded on mobile devices. It also discovered that just 11 departments have constituted plans to keep a record of system-readable information excerpts and remove information after 90 days.

The GAO report says that a series of data violations at government agencies includes system invasion, phishing scams, and data loss or stealing of laptops, disk drives, and disc. In the financial year 2006, government agencies notified a high number of incidents to the US-CERT (US Computer Emergency Readiness Team). For instance, in 2006, there were around 5,146 incident reported, a considerable rise from 3,569 incidents notified in 2005. During that period, US-CERT witnessed a spectacular increase where either material loss or stealing or system breach caused the theft of recognizable data.

But according to the National Science Foundation's Chief Information Officer, George Strawn, in contrast to the GAO survey, his office has enforced the entire or sections of all the five steps, as reported by washingtonpost on February 26, 2008.

He alleged that they have been developing this meticulously for the past few years and satisfied with the progress. Moreover, there is still more to accomplish with criminals perpetually endeavoring to overtake them, but they have always been wary of it and don't plan to lessen their watchfulness in future also.

Related article: GIO’s Confidential Information Hacked and disclosed

» SPAMfighter News - 3/3/2008