Network for risk professionals
- By Lance Winslow
By Lance Winslow
Federal Government Agencies are finally living up to the fact that they have been the biggest culprits in giving away US citizen's personal identity information. Some CPOs Chief Privacy Officers are still in denial claiming that government interns do not have security background checks and they need to be educated as to the "consequences of misconduct" or that regulating morality within government will stop the leakage of personal information.
The reality is that having more "free-no-work-day" seminars, educational meetings and free-food speaking and listening events will not solve the real problem. The government has been giving away our information for years and they have been violating the spirit of the Privacy Act and Federal Information Systems Management Act long before it was ever conceived.
One CPO at a Justice Department sub-agency has bragged about a full-color brochure and an "Info - Handle it with Care" seminar, yet that same agency had lost personal information from laptops that were stolen out of a parked car while their employees attended a seminar at a Scottsdale, AZ Resort. So, much for protecting consumers against identity theft, indeed it was the very agency that Congress appropriated tens of millions of dollars to combat the problem.
The CPOs believe that such education will prevent stupidity, dishonest, lack of integrity or some how change the way that the government gives away all the information that you put onto their forms. So, their suggestions include such things as: taking stock and knowing what is on the computers, keeping only what is needed, protecting information and disposing information no longer needed.
Of course, their main focus is a big CYA warning, that once the data is lost, call your boss? Great, I feel so much safer now, knowing that some bureaucrat knows my personal identity was compromised by an incompetent employee? And for this, I pay higher taxes? We need to clean house and that means more than a color brochure and a CYA statement. Serious and Sincerely, Lance.
By Lance Winslow
Federal Government Agencies are finally living up to the fact that they have been the biggest culprits in giving away US citizen's personal identity information. Some CPOs Chief Privacy Officers are still in denial claiming that government interns do not have security background checks and they need to be educated as to the "consequences of misconduct" or that regulating morality within government will stop the leakage of personal information.
The reality is that having more "free-no-work-day" seminars, educational meetings and free-food speaking and listening events will not solve the real problem. The government has been giving away our information for years and they have been violating the spirit of the Privacy Act and Federal Information Systems Management Act long before it was ever conceived.
One CPO at a Justice Department sub-agency has bragged about a full-color brochure and an "Info - Handle it with Care" seminar, yet that same agency had lost personal information from laptops that were stolen out of a parked car while their employees attended a seminar at a Scottsdale, AZ Resort. So, much for protecting consumers against identity theft, indeed it was the very agency that Congress appropriated tens of millions of dollars to combat the problem.
The CPOs believe that such education will prevent stupidity, dishonest, lack of integrity or some how change the way that the government gives away all the information that you put onto their forms. So, their suggestions include such things as: taking stock and knowing what is on the computers, keeping only what is needed, protecting information and disposing information no longer needed.
Of course, their main focus is a big CYA warning, that once the data is lost, call your boss? Great, I feel so much safer now, knowing that some bureaucrat knows my personal identity was compromised by an incompetent employee? And for this, I pay higher taxes? We need to clean house and that means more than a color brochure and a CYA statement. Serious and Sincerely, Lance.
By Lance Winslow
Add a Comment
About
© 2009 Created by William Huber on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
You need to be a member of Risk Analysis to add comments!
Join this social network