Computers Held Personal Data on Employee-Owners
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Some of the nation's most influential former military and intelligence
officials have been informed in recent days that they are at risk of
identity theft after a break-in at a major government contractor
netted computers containing the Social Security numbers and other
personal information about tens of thousands of past and present
company employees.
The contractor, employee-owned Science Applications International
Corp. of San Diego, handles sensitive government contracts, including
many in information security. It has a reputation for hiring
Washington's most powerful figures when they leave the government, and
its payroll has been studded with former secretaries of defense, CIA
directors and White House counterterrorism advisers.
Those former officials -- along with the rest of a 45,000-person
workforce in which a significant percentage of employees hold
government security clearances -- were informed last week that their
private information may have been breached and they need to take steps
to protect themselves from fraud.
David Kay, who was chief weapons inspector in Iraq after nearly a
decade as an executive at SAIC, said he has devoted more than a dozen
hours to shutting down accounts and safeguarding his finances. He said
the successful theft of personal data, by thieves who smashed windows
to gain access, does not speak well of a company that is devoted to
keeping the government's secrets secure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17506-2005Feb11
Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)