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GCN Home > 03/07/05 issue

Feds’ personal data goes missing

By Jason Miller, GCN Staff

Lawmakers quiz GSA after Bank of America loses tapes containing credit card records

The Bank of America Corp.’s loss of data tapes containing personal information on 1.2 million federal charge card holders has triggered congressional wrath on both the bank and the General Services Administration.

Following the bank’s acknowledgement late last month that it could not locate magnetic tapes used for federal credit card accounts, lawmakers are questioning GSA’s oversight of the SmartPay program and whether the agency requires sufficient security to protect personal data.

“I am disturbed that we still do not know whether the tapes were accidentally lost or deliberately stolen,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in letters last week to GSA and the bank.

The tapes—which contain records with such details as employees’ names, addresses and Social Security numbers—first went missing in December.

There is speculation that the tapes disappeared while in transit from one Bank of America facility to another and that the Transportation Security Administration did not adequately secure the tapes, according to a congressional staff member.

GSA and TSA should be held accountable for the loss of the tapes, the staff member said. “Bank of America did everything it was required to do here,” he said. “If tighter security should have been the norm, where was GSA in requiring that as a part of the contract? What about TSA, whose employees apparently failed to properly re-secure the luggage containing the tapes?”

Bank of America informed the employees this month that their personal information could be at risk.

Congressional consternation

“I am perplexed why federal employees were not notified that their identifying information had been compromised until two months after the fact,” Collins noted in her letters to GSA administrator Stephen A. Perry and Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis.

Alexandra Trower, a Bank of America spokeswoman, said the lost tapes include records on employees from 30 federal agencies and the Senate.

“There has been no evidence that the tapes or the content has been accessed or misused, and we are presuming the tapes to be lost at this point,” she said.

More news on related topics: IT Security, Storage Management, COOP / Telework



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