Private businesses are not the only victims of theft relating to confidential information. In the largest security breach on record involving Social Security numbers, a U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs employee violated agency policy and took a laptop containing the sensitive personal information of 26.5 million veterans discharged after 1975. Burglars stole the laptop from the employee’s home. The information stolen included names, Social Security numbers, disability ratings, spouses, and dates of birth. In June, veterans filed class-action lawsuits seeking $1,000.00 for each of the 26.5 million people listed in the missing database files.
The Transportation Security Administration acknowledged that it recently lost a hard drive containing 100,000 archived employee records. The TSA purchased credit monitoring services for employees whose data was involved in the breach.
On a smaller scale, two Federal Trade Commission laptops disappeared from a locked trunk. The FTC attorneys were working on a case, and were authorized to have the laptops. The information on the laptops included the names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial account information, and dates of birth for persons the FTC had investigated. The laptops did not contain any information about FTC employees or government officials. Ironically, the laptops contained sensitive personal information for defendants that had been investigated for stealing other people’s identities. The FTC offered free credit monitoring for 110 people as a result of the theft.