Presidential Data Breach

Who Breached: US Department of State
Number Affected: 3
Information breached: Passport records (including SSNs)
How: insider breach

The passport records for three presidential candidates (Obama, Clinton and McCain) has been breached.

Thursday, the US Department of State admitted that three or four contract workers illegally accessed the passport records of Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The breaches affecting Barack Obama occurred on January 9, February 12 and March 14, but were not reported to higher-level State employees. The Clinton and McCain files were accessed once each.

Passport records include date and place of birth, physical health, birth certificates, medical records and financial reports. Any investigative reports compiled during the passport approval process would also be available. Social Security Numbers are also included in the files.

The US Department of State has characterized the incident as that of "imprudent curiosity." The information was kept in secured file cabinets or in restricted areas, or in databases that are password-protected. An audit trail of all data accessed is kept.

Two of the curious employees worked for Stanley Inc, a government contractor, and have been fired as a result of the breach. The other contracting company has not been disclosed – it is known, however, that the curious employee at that company has been disciplined (not fired).

Here is a video report of the incident by the Associated Press:

Via computerworld, newsweek Tags: obama, clinton, mccain, breach, data breach, presidential data breach, presidential race, id theft, government breach, passport records