FBI Offers $25,000 for Lost Hard Drive

By the Betanews Staff | Published February 22, 2007, 1:08 PM

The Birmingham, Alabama Veterans Administration Medical Center said this week it is seeking the return of an external Iomega hard drive containing personal information on at least a half-million people. The Center has brought in the FBI to help investigate and is offering a $25,000 reward.

The drive was reported missing by an employee who had used it to backup medical records. Although the sensitive data on the drive has not surfaced elsewhere, recent cases of identity theft have prompted the FBI to get involved in a number of similar stolen hard drive cases. A bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would hold IT managers responsible for such privacy breaches.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

Check out this article on the subject: http://www.al.com/birmin...39972970.xml&coll=2

Score: 0

|

Can't be much on it for only 25 grand reward.

Score: 0

|

That makes the value of each persons' information $0.05 (5 cents) each. Doesn't really say much for the value of each persons information, eh?

Score: 0

|

Now that's good markup on a hard drive.

Score: 0

|

It's on E-bay.
Man, I hope they don't out bid me on this one.
I'm sure there's a lot of porn on there:-)LOL

Score: 0

|

so the fbi is offering a quarter of their salary for us to do their job for them?

Score: 0

|

i wonder if the FBI has tried looking on Craigslist

Score: 0

|

New rule: Take away all the laptops in the Bush administration. These guys steal one per day,... er, lose one a day. There's only one reason you're "losing" a laptop: you're selling it to the enemy. And where are you that you're leaving one laying around?

Score: 0

|

I don't think it's politically correct to make fun of retards.

Score: 0

|

As I have said before, this has nothing to do with politics. How does the party of ELECTED officials have any effect on the fact that UNELECTED beurocrats keep loosing data storage devices. Again, why do all of these people to have this type of equipment. I am really begining to think that a return of the mainframe/terminal layout needs to occur.

Score: 0

|

Too true - the Democrats can't help being slow, it's part of the requirement for being a party member. :)

Score: 0

|

just like every republican's foreign policy must be Hobbesian in nature?

Score: 0

|

Somehow I knew you couldn't resist making an idiot of yourself Filmore.

psst...the democrats lose stuff to.

Score: 0

|

Yea, only a retard would want to protect your personal privacy and freedoms. Obviously the smart people realize that trampling on our bill of rights and habeus corpus is the natural right of our government. Good point billweh.

Score: 0

|

Wasn't that new security agency started by republicans? Why do breaches and stolen equipment keep happening if they are in charge? Sounds like the incompetance you speak of is within your own party. :/

Score: 0

|

Google Chrome 4: Yes, it's fast, but is it usable?

As Betanews readers have responded to our stories about Chrome's JavaScript superiority...Does that mean we'd actually use this browser? Well...

Video: Netflix on PlayStation 3

Netflix has come to the PlayStation 3 via Blu-ray and BD-Live.

Verizon Wireless launches new Android, Chocolate, and ruggedized phones

The lower-priced Eris joins the Droid, while the Chocolate gets a touchscreen and more music playback.

Early sales figures for Windows 7 nicely high, but do we know why?

Fans of triple-digit surges in figures quoted by Betanews will love this one, as it appears Microsoft rediscovered how to pull off a software launch.

Myka announces its latest Linux-based 'net top box'

Myka's ION brings Boxee, XMBC, and much more to HDTVs.

What hath Mac wrought? A remembrance after a quarter-century

The reason there's a Macintosh today is not because of some brilliant flash of engineering genius, but because Apple had the audacity to learn from its mistakes.

Early build of Moblin 2.1 improves connectivity, but not device support

The Linux Foundation's Atom-centric OS yesterday received a major overhaul with the project release of Moblin 2.1 for netbooks and nettops.

The iPhone's China syndrome: Sales of 5,000 and climbing

There's actually a country where Apple's device is not a godsend, where sales can be measured in the dozens.

New European counterpart to FCC will ensure 'a more neutral net'

Late Thursday night, the ruling telecom administrators of the EU's member nations signed away their final authority to a new entity overseen by the EC.

Sophos study suggests Windows 7 UAC's default setting is self-defeating

Without any anti-virus installed, a Sophos test showed, User Account Control was only capable of thwarting just one malware package out of ten samples chosen.

Indiscreet tweet trips awareness of Web SSL vulnerability

A group of high-level security engineers had been making progress on thwarting a low-level threat to the Web, until somebody blurted it all out on Twitter.