FierceCIOFierceCIOTechWatchFierceMobileITFierceContentManagement   FierceVoIPFierceHealthITFierceFinanceIT
About | Sample | Privacy

Protect used data tapes

Tools
Tags
Data Security
Confidental Data
sensitive data
C-Level
U.S. Federal Government
Business Process Management (BPM)

The federal government is on the hot seat once again. Rep. Betty McCollum is calling for an investigation into whether federal agencies resold magnetic data tapes. InformationWeek reports that the feds wiped the tapes clean before reselling them, but a private company was able to recover sensitive information that was originally stored on the tapes. The tapes contained bank account numbers, tax and benefit information and expense reports. Investigators with the Government Accountability Office inspected the tapes and said they were clean. But Imation, the company that produced the tapes, was able to retrieve the highly sensitive data.

"Using a tape drive, a standard PC, programming knowledge, and understanding how data is written to media (which is publicly available), and a little more time than the GAO investigation, Imation personnel found the following recoverable sensitive data on these used tapes certified as clean: the origin of the tape, bank account numbers, employee information, travel expense reports, audit procedures and results, employee savings plan balances, international tax benefits documents," McCollum said in a letter calling for an investigation. McCollum said it is important to halt this kind of practice because it could expose individuals or national security data.

For more on securing data tapes:
- See this InformationWeek article 

Comments

They probably found information on data tapes that were not wiped clean. The people who were destroying the data either missed the tapes or did not know what they were doing. Big companies that make data tapes don't want their tapes resold for a lesser price than new. They would rather sell you new ones at a high price so they can keep the inventory down.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

More information about formatting options

What is 24 + 74?
To combat spam, please solve the math question above.