Shakes Alive! Protect yourshelf and your data!

I was just working on a presentation and created this pretty timeline that shows ALL the security breaches by the VA in the last 9 months. WOW! I am wondering why they keep doing this over and over again! (To see it bigger, you may click on it). And all of these incidents have to do with someone stealing the laptop/PC/hard drive/thumbdrive/folders/etc. I think it (FINALLY!) might be time for those old white guys to realize that perhaps it should be a requirement that all sensitive data is encrypted (at rest and in transit)! And let the fall out begin...?



Here's a cute table of the Top 5 Breaches of 2006 (according to CSO Magazine).

Records Potentially Breached	Where and When Made Public	What Happened
28.6 Million	Veterans Affairs Department, May 22	Laptop stolen from employee’s home holds veterans’ personal data. Computer recovered and FBI forensics says no data accessed; veterans agency contracts monitor to see if data misused.
2.6 Million	Circuit City, Chase Card Services, Sept. 7	Computer data tapes containing Circuit City cardholders’ data mistakenly discarded.
1.7 Million	Circuit City, Chase Card Services, Sept. 7	Worker at subcontractor loses equipment containing borrowers’ names and Social Security numbers.
1.35 Million	Chicago Election Board, Oct. 23	Illinois activists report they hacked into voter database where names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth are viewed.
1 Million	American Red Cross, St. Louis chapter, May 24	Employee with access to donors’ Social Security numbers allegedly uses three records for ID theft scheme.