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IRS Loses Laptop With Unencrypted Names

Written by Evan Schuman
June 8th, 2006

Just what the federal government needs this week: more data-protection problems. An Internal Revenue Service employee lost an agency laptop early last month that contained sensitive personal information on 291 workers and job applicants. The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The paper reported that the employee checked the laptop as luggage aboard a commercial flight while traveling to a job fair and never saw it again. The computer contained unencrypted names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and fingerprints of the employees and applicants.

Posted in Security/Fraud
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