Security

Lately here in Tennessee we've been having some major lapses in Security with people that know better; or should.  I guess Federal Employees, or those with Top Secret clearance, are so used to handling sensitive material that the sensitivity of the subject matter wanes.  They treat information, in an age of Information Crime, like it's a cup of coffee to be left on a table and forgotten about.  I remember back in the Nineties at Lawrence Livermore Labs when the big news out of there was some Scientist had his laptop stolen.  He carelessly just left it sitting unattended somewhere and figured no one would take it.  On it were sensitive files of a Top Secret nature.  I understand the man was probably working on the project, and needed access to those files, but why did he have copies of them on his portable computer???  Yes he has Top Secret clearance but that doesn't mean he should have the actual files on his harddrive!!!! This is a man with a PhD...oh wait I know a PhD Scientist that couldn't figure out how to open a can of regular old household paint...nevermind.  The recent screw ups out here have been of a similar vein.  First we have a laptop stolen from a desk at the offices of Davidson County (that's Nashville and it's immediate surrounding cities....not mine, I'm in Wilson County) that contained lists of Voter Information on it.  That info contained SS#'s.  Why was this list sitting on someone's harddrive?  I can understand a Registrar of Voters needing access to that database of info, but shouldn't that have been stored on a server somewhere?????  I have access to sensitive info here at work, but I can only access it through a gateway program that pulls it from the Database.  There is no reason nor anyway that I know of to download it to my harddrive.  Frankly, I'm glad.  Then there was a recent incident at Tennessee Tech University (where my StepSon Kevin is a student currently) where a Flash Drive containing student records went missing.  Why the Hell was student info on a FLASHDRIVE!?!?!?!?!?  This, of course, includes SS#'s.  Who trains these people?  Are there not rules in place saying "Don't download sensitive crap to your harddrives." ????  It's like these people don't think.  Wake up folks.  People are going to start suing your assess right and left if you don't watch it.  The idiots responsible tell folks to contact the three credit agencies and have them put a fraud warning on their information.  Don't those agencies charge for that?  If so, are the morons responsible for the screw ups going to pay the fees?  I sure hope so.  You should take it out of the dumbass employees check and his/her supervisor's as well.  Now as you may know from previous entries, we have a new mall near our house.  Providence Marketplace.  Recently the Police raided an apartment in Mount Juliet and found a crapload of shoplifted goods.  3 guesses as to where they were stolen from.  I've see the Security at that place.  3 cops driving around; that's it.  I don't see any Loss Prevention folks (trust me, I'd know....having had a best friend who did just that for years.....) so I can see how easy it is to shoplift.  How many times have you been in a store and the alarm thing goes off as someone is exiting.  Obviously a security tag hadn't been removed or something, but 9 times out of 10 the person is just told "oh don't worry it's okay".  No, it's not okay.  You never know when that person exiting is not someone that just came from the register.  What's next....they start posting our SS#'s on the nightly news????