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A hard drive containing 100,000 employee records has been lost or stolen from the Transportation Security Administration, the agency announced on May 7.
The TSA discovered that the hard drive was missing last week, on May 3. It contained records of people employed at the agency between January 2002 and August 2005. The records included name, Social Security number, date of birth, payroll information, bank account and routing information.
The drive was discovered missing from a controlled area at the TSA headquarters Office of Human Capital. The agency hasn’t figured out yet if the drive is still somewhere within headquarters or in the hands of a thief.
TSA reported the incident to the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement officials. The FBI is investigating, while the Secret Service is helping out with a forensic review of the TSA’s equipment and facilities.
TSA has begun to notify the affected individuals and is providing them with information about how to protect against identity fraud. The agency is also working out a process to purchase credit monitoring services for affected employees for one year.
To find out how to claim the benefit or for links to credit reporting agencies and other information, go to the TSA’s site.