Within days of our very first InBoxer Anti-Risk Appliance installation at our very first customer, we detected an email that contained a spreadsheet with the social security numbers of contractors. We have since learned that it is a common accident for many of our customers for social security numbers to be sent in an open email. But, none of these were as high profile as the White House leak last week.
The social security number, date of birth, and passport numbers of key members of the media were listed in an open email sent by the White House travel office last week, according to a small article in U.S. News and World Report. They were listed on an ordinary trip manifest of reporters who traveled to Latin America with President Bush. Among those on the trip were CBS's Bill Plante, Fox's Bret Baier, CNN's Ed Henry, and NBC's Kelly O'Donnell.
"The manifest usually includes just the names of those on the trip and what they owe. But this E-mail, sent to media billing offices and bureau officials March 21, included a spreadsheet that on the far-right-hand side included the personal identity numbers. Why's it a problem? "I don't know everyone on that list. It could have been taken by somebody shady," frets one TV reporter. "It was an honest mistake," says C-SPAN's Steve Scully, president of the White House Correspondents' Association," U.S. News reported.
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