TSA loses hard drive full of crucial personal data

The TSA is supposed to protect us from terror in the skies, but they've recently given night-sweats to 100,000 employees whose personal data -- including names, bank routing data and Social Security Numbers -- have gone missing along with the external hard drive they were stored on. What's worse, among those 100k employees are the elite team of Air Marshals, the armed and mysterious force who may or may not be on any US flight you board.

The Washington Post offers a tongue lashing editorial on the subject, and writes, "This is getting ridiculous. When it comes to safeguarding private information from the growing identity theft industry, Uncle Sam's track record is horrendous."

The TSA is unsure if the drive is simply lost or whether it's fallen into the hands of someone with ill intent. The message remains clear however; if you're storing important data, safeguard it physically, as well as digitally or you may face the same fate.

Tags: data security, DataSecurity, identity theft, IdentityTheft, missing data, MissingData, news, TSA