NY Times coverage, including who did it, and when. Interesting that "training exercises" make it okay to access your relatives' passport files, but not a politician's.

InformationWeek notes that it wasn't a technological breach. The folks doing the peeking had full access rights to do so. Cool! The big gaps were that folks did it with no "need to know," and that their supervisors/management didn't report it up the food chain, and when they did it took way too long to notify the folks whose security was violated.

Meanwhile, Time notes that, right as all this was going on, the Bush Administration was granting access to these files to still more folks, for "counter-terrorism," border security, and anti-fraud (!)  purposes, including "Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Counter-Terrorism Center, 'foreign governments, and entities such as Interpol'" And I'm sure all of them will immediately report any unauthorized use.

What kind of personal information do these Passport Records actually contain? Contrary to what you might expect, the system doesn't have information about your entries into the U.S. (That's in a separate system run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that actually swipes your passport when you come into the country.) The State Department's records do, however, hold every application for a passport and copies of any supporting documents like birth or marriage certificates. That application has your address, Social Security number, phone number, the name and number of your emergency contact and your photograph. The records also have information on any attempts to change the status of your citizenship, which is what employees in the elder Bush Administration were suspected of looking for in Bill Clinton's records in 1992. A search by name or passport number can also dredge up other items that have been attached to the file, such as court orders, arrest warrants, financial reports and even medical reports, according to the public State Department records.

Filed under :: Elections 2008 :: Hi-Tech :: Homeland Security
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