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U.S. National Archives offers reward for missing hard drive
(Credit:
National Archives and Records Administration)
The U.S. National Archives on Wednesday said it is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of a missing hard drive that contains personal information of former Clinton administration staff and visitors.
The small portable hard drive was being kept as a backup, the National Archives explained in a question-and-answer document (PDF) on its Web site. It held copies of about 113 four-millimeter tape cartridges of "snapshots" of hard-drive contents of employees who left the Executive Office of the President.
Because the staff maintained White House entry information and electronic address books, the external drive contains personally identifying information including names and Social Security numbers of staff and visitors to the White House complex during the Clinton administration, the FAQ said.
National Archives staff began searching for the missing drive March 24 and notified senior officials at the agency on April 2. The National Archives' inspector general then opened a criminal investigation and the agency informed the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team of the Department of Homeland Security, the White House Counsel's Office, staff of the House and Senate Oversight Committees, and a representative for former President Bill Clinton.
The National Archives will notify the individuals affected and offer them a year of credit monitoring. It is unknown how many people are affected, according to the FAQ.
"We do not know whether the drive was stolen, lost, or otherwise misplaced," the FAQ said.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
I wonder if Sandy Burger smuggled the hard drive out in his underwear like he did the Memos and other things to hide what Clinton did?
Why isn't everything there tagged with RFID or something?
Seems like NA want things to go missing so that future history books can be rewritten by spooks when they retire.
- by finderkeeperlooserweeper May 21, 2009 2:50 PM PDT
- geewiz, when a laptop was lost at the careless hands of some office personel that links your student loan to the irs, all i got was a letter that i should keep an eye out for any unautherized attempts on my credit because my info was on this laptop along with thousands of others. after many years of paying off this loan and after 4 yrs since the last payment some jerk has the right to pack arround personal info of others on a portable laptop so he could work at home, i guess. i didn`t see where anyone offered a reward for such sensitive info. i mean they could be using thousands of id`s for illegal immigration for just one. now, i think that is truely a security threat and a breech of my privacy. oh yeah, i was offered one year of free credit monitoring. all that is, is a snag when you go to process a loan or anything else where they check your credit. its hard being responsible for yourself when the government has the right to mishandle your information at your expense.
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