JDA

Rocking Out to Military Secrets

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Category: Blog

Published on Monday, 02 February 2009 12:28

Written by Jason Briody

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It looks like the people at JDA aren't the only ones just stumbling upon personally identifying information.  CNN reports that about a year ago, Chris Ogle of New Zealand bought a used MP3 player from a thrift store in Oklahoma, and a few weeks ago finally plugged it in to his computer. Instead of a blank player or some leftover MP3s, however, Ogle discovered confidential US military documents on the MP3 player, including "mission briefings and lists of equipment deployed to hot spots in Afghanistan and Iraq," along with "home addresses, social security numbers, and cell phone numbers of U.S. soldiers."

According to the Associated Press, the MP3 player was collected by US officials on the 28th of January.

As much as we'd like to think so, this is not an uncommon story; the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's "Chronology of Data Breaches" shows that incidents like this happen all the time.

For firsthand evidence of unsecured personal info, we need only take a look at JD&A's current PII Quest statistics. In just a few months, we've saved potential victims over $70K in non-recoverable damages and from wasting almost 9,000 hours trying to rectify their situations; that translates to a lot of PII just floating around out there. And all the information that we've stumbled upon and destroyed we have come across just as easily and innocently as in Ogle's story.

The PII Quest's high numbers along with the multitude of stories similar to Ogle's illustrate just how many people don't take basic security precautions regarding their data. Data security is not just a corporate or military "thing." Everyone should be taking steps to ensure that their PII is safe and sound, since a criminal getting just a few key items, such as a name and social, can lead the average victim to spend nearly $1,000 and 133 hours of unrecoverable time and money trying to recover their identity.

So what steps can you take? Well, for example, every time you save or copy a file, ask yourself if you'd be fine with a stranger getting their hands on it. If not, the file (or the device to which you're saving it) should be encrypted. If whatever device that file is saved on is stolen or lost, there's a good chance that whoever gets their hands on that device will be able to access whatever you've got on there. (Quick note: the simple "logon" password protection used in most versions of Windows is NOT encryption; files "protected" using only this method are still very much accessible.)

Contrary to the sound of the word, though, "encryption" doesn't have to be complicated or expensive; there are free, easy-to-use programs out there like TrueCrypt. Your thumb drive, for example, is a thin piece of plastic away from breaking off your key chain. Make sure that if it gets lost, you can write it off instead of sweating it out.

Using encryption is just one step you should be taking to safeguard your information; check out the "Protect Yourself" section of JD&A's PII Quest for free tools, inexpensive tricks, and info on federally-mandated programs (all of which many ID theft prevention companies will try to charge you for) that can assist you in securing your PII.

Lastly, keep in mind that that security is a process, not a product. You don't have to spend a ton of money to live a more secure life; knowing the dangers and the tools you have at your disposal can make a huge difference in determining the security of your personal information.

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