WASHINGTON, May 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Yesterday the
 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) became aware of a potential
 data security incident involving approximately 100,000 archived employment
 records of individuals employed by the agency from January 2002 until
 August 2005. An external hard drive containing personnel data (including
 name, social security number, date of birth, payroll information, bank
 account and routing information) was discovered missing from a controlled
 area at the TSA Headquarters Office of Human Capital. It is unclear at this
 stage whether the device is still within headquarters or was stolen. TSA
 immediately reported the incident to senior DHS and law enforcement
 officials and launched an investigation.
     TSA is treating this incident as a criminal matter and has asked the
 FBI to investigate. The U.S. Secret Service is also assisting in the
 forensic review of equipment and facilities. TSA is cooperating fully.
     TSA has begun to notify directly all affected individuals and provide
 them with information about how to protect against identity fraud. As an
 extra safeguard, TSA is developing a process to purchase credit monitoring
 services for all affected current and former employees for a period of one
 year, as necessary. Procedures for claiming this benefit, links to the
 credit reporting agencies and other information is available at
 http://www.tsa.gov.
     TSA has extensive data protections protocols and training in place for
 its employees regarding data privacy. TSA has zero tolerance for employees
 not following policies on data protection and will take swift disciplinary
 action, including dismissal, against individuals found to be in violation
 of our procedures.
     Media Contact: TSA Public Affairs
                    (571) 227-2829
 
 

SOURCE Transportation Security Administration