Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
No, seriously, trust us...
I write fiction. Science fiction. Weird stuff with alien artifacts, psychic abilities, and crazed fundamentalists. But I would not have the nerve to make this up:
WASHINGTON - The Transportation Security Administration has lost a computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 employees.
Authorities realized Thursday the hard drive was missing from a controlled area at TSA headquarters. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley sent a letter to employees Friday apologizing for the lost data and promising to pay for one year of credit monitoring services.
You have got to be kidding me. And these are the people to whom we have supposedly trusted the security of our entire transportation system? To whom we've allowed almost unfettered access to our personal data in order to create 'no fly lists' and screen out terrorists?
Sheesh. Remember when the Republican party was supposed to be the 'Daddy Party' - the ones who were perhaps a little conservative and straight-laced, but competent and trustworthy?
It's insane.
Jim Downey
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Your Books
Jim,
Do you have any sci-fi books in print that I could get my hands on?
-Toast
I'm hoping.
Toast - I wish. The link below has my novel available for free download in pdf files. I have another in process, if and when I have the energy and focus to work on it.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Dude, you're reading my mail
Right on, Jim. Incredible to believe this stuff happens.
And their attempt at rectifying the situation? They'll buy credit monitoring services for a year. So the victims will be able to tell how much fradulent purchases the bad guys have done. That totally helps.
Along these lines, I found out about a company called Lifelock that does one better; they put fraud alerts on your credit reports so that the creditors have to call you to open up any credit account. I just signed up for it a couple weeks ago; it seemed like a good service. And I don't get any remuneration for others signing up, in case you're wondering. Just passing on information. www.lifelock.com
The common response.
Yeah, offering credit-monitoring services seems to be the common response from both government and business when this kind of thing happens. Which can help, but sort of misses the point that it shouldn't have happened in the first place, particularly in an entity supposedly responsible for security.
Yeesh. A good manifestation of the triumph of fear & authoritarianism over anything sensible. And, of course, proof that when government is given power, it will abuse it and/or be incompetent in managing it. And *that* is why I tend towards libertarianism.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
You can always call the
You can always call the credit bureaus directly (or go to their websites) and request a credit block yourself - it doesn't cost anything.
Anyway, how does a hard drive go missing? Someone had to have opened up the case, unscrewed the drive from its mounting, and disconnected the cables. Well, I suppose it could have been a flash drive. But I remember hearing a similar story during the Wen Ho-Lee case - a hard drive went missing from a Los Alamos computer, and turned up behind an office radiator. This was before the days of flash drives. What is it with these bureaucrats - do they think you can treat hard drives like floppy disks?
- No More Mr. Nice Guy!
Could be an external hard drive
Those you just plug into a USB2 port. We use them around the office to schlepp around large bits of stuff. But then, we're not handling nuclear secrets or databases full of personal data!