Data Compromised For 26,000 at USDA

[deadparrot]

A hacker breached the Agriculture Department's computer system and may have taken personal information on 26,000 employees, retirees and contractors, the department said, making it the latest federal agency to have had personal data compromised.

The potential loss is less dramatic than the one that occurred last month with the theft of a laptop computer and hard drive containing personal information on up to 26.5 million veterans and military personnel from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee.

The Agriculture Department, which alerted employees to the breach Wednesday, said those affected will receive a year of free credit monitoring. VA announced a similar plan Wednesday after weeks of criticism for its failure to safeguard private data. On an individual basis, credit monitoring can cost more than $75 year.

"We may cover more than necessary, but really our point is to protect the personal data of employees," Boyd Rutherford, Agriculture's assistant secretary for administration, said yesterday. He said law enforcement and the department's inspector general are investigating the breach and have no leads on the hacker.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201549.html

[babylonsister]

1. What is this, about the 8th different hack job in as many days?

What's going on?

[coffeenap]

2. My question is: is someone just having "fun" or is this being done

on behalf of the criminal government?

[babylonsister]

4. My guess is the latter; too many instances suddenly . nt

[unhappycamper]

5. Good question.

I put out a theory on data & identity theft earlier this month that did not generate much discussion:
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/unhappycamper/10

I put a thread in this morning in GD that sank like a stone:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1490890

I firmly believe that somehow, someway the escalating data and identity thefts are related. The Choicepoints, Visas, and Wells Fargos data have been purloined. Now we just gotta collect the gubermint data & someone is ready to rock and roll. I doubt it will be pretty.

[TexasLawyer]

8. or on behalf of information sellers

like ChoicePoint, which is joined at the hip with the RNC.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Oh fucking HELL!

For any of those who used to work at agencies like the IRS, this can potentially affect us too, since back around 92-93 (not sure if this still applies), our personnel and timekeeping systems were put under those of the USDA.

Jeezus BLOODY ^&*()$#@!

fsc

[Eurobabe]

6. Okay, who's lobbying for the credit industry?

Sounds like a PR blitz to rope people into credit monitoring services.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. It also might be...

either part of the government data mining operation or an initiative to stop any and all opposition to RealID.

Whatever it is it is massive, coordinated and has an agenda that goes beyond merely stealing.

[NYC]

9. I need to put this link on speed dial:

http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm

88,366,461 as of June 22nd.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA)
(Washington, D.C.)

During the first week in June, a hacker broke into the Department's computer system and may have obtained names, Social Security numbers and photos of current and former employees and contractors.

[seafan]

10. This passed the coincidence stage long ago. TIA data banks need filling.

So this is just the latest word of the next theft of our private data?


They know they have 4 months left to steal from the American people before they are forced out of power.

I hope everyone braces for the next few months, because they will throw every bit of fire and smoke at us that they can muster....

....*terrorist plots* in Miami, Chicago, sending in the clowns AG Gonzo, Chertoff; *successful* missile shield tests against big bad North Korea; trumpeting the death of al-Zaqari as a critical development, when the evidence indicates that this man's actual importance was politically exaggerated to propagandize Americans; Bush's pathetic and embarrassing 4-hour photo ops at various locations around the world...


....while they flush the 1965 Voting Rights Act; they vote down a minimum wage increase, destroy legislation presented by Democrats to bring our troops out of Iraq this year; they are finalizing their plans to suppress as much of the minority vote as possible and halt any attempts to attach paper backup to Republican-owned voting machines that have been demonstrated by many professional examiners to be vulnerable to election tampering.

The ice caps are melting; we are past 2500 troop deaths in Iraq, with the pace accelerating every single day; the treasury is robbed faster and faster, to enrich the rich.


We are witnessing the most widespread, coordinated robbery in the history of America, by the worst of humanity.

And they call themselves American.

[rman]

11. That'll come in handy if and when they're going to screw up voter IDs

As does the stolen veteran data.

But that's just my little pet theory.