Affiliated Computer Services’ announcement of getting a five five-year outsourcing contract to deliver call center services to electronic benefit transfer (EBT) recipients in the State of Texas is not the news. I want to take your attention to this news.
Computer tapes from a state agency that contained millions of records with sensitive personal data, including Social Security numbers and wages, were missing for more than two weeks before being found Monday by a private vendor.
The box of 14 missing tapes contained employment information used to verify Medicaid claims to ensure clients weren't covered by private insurance.
Though the information was not compromised, the situation exposed serious flaws in the way contractors handled the data. Officials with the Health and Human Services Commission weren't even notified the records were missing for more than a week after the box should have arrived at the vendor's office.
It’s ACS or Affiliated Computer Services who was partly responsible for the mess. Certainly not very good impressive news for ACS.
Its felt that though the data was not encrypted it will be difficult for any no-technical person to retrieve or decode the data. 
Is there any more update on this story? Another example of why simple PGP implementation should be required of all sensitive data.
Posted by: MichaelM | May 15, 2007 12:58 PM | Permalink to Comment