TSA Loses Hard Drive With Employee Data

The Transportation Security Administration admitted over the weekend that it had lost a hard drive containing data on approximately 100,000 employees.

Among the data on the hard drive are social security numbers, bank data, and payroll information, potentially enough for any identity thief to steal employees' indentities, and possibly compromise their banking accounts.

TSA officials say the HDD turned up missing from a supposedly secure area in the agency's Washington, DC offices. A letter was sent Friday to employees apologizing for the problem and offering a year's worth of credit monitoring services.

An investigation into the issue will be launched by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who heads the committee that oversees Homeland Security issues in the House of Representatives.

It is not known whether the drive was stolen or misplaced. The agency said it had no evidence that the data on the hard drive had been used improperly. Both the FBI and Secret Service have been called in to investigate.

Data on the drive contained information on those who worked for Homeland Security between January 2002 and August 2005, it said. TSA is a division within that department.

The loss of data, possibly by theft, has some employees quite upset. "It's seems like there's a problem with security inside Homeland Security and that makes no sense," one employee told the AP.