yet more data thefts

July 2, 2006 -- There has been another theft of sensitive personal data in the continuing epidemic of such thefts across the United States. WMR has been reporting the thefts are part of a covert Bush administration program to populate Total Information Awareness (TIA) databases secretly maintained by the National Security Agency. This time the target was, once again, the American Red Cross's blood donor database. A laptop computer containing the names, dates of birth, and diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases, of donors in Texas and Oklahoma, was stolen from a locked Red Cross office closet in the Dallas area. A similar theft of a laptop containing similar Red Cross blood donor information from the same office was reported in June 2005. The American Red Cross contends that in both thefts of donor data the information was encrypted and required a password. However, considering these thefts are being carried out by a covert, carve-out team of contractors working for U.S. intelligence, commercial-grade encryption is easily broken.

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June 30, 2006 -- After the Veterans Affairs Department claimed it recovered the lap top containing the personal details on 28.7 million veterans and active duty personnel and then claimed that the data had not been accessed (a spurious claim considering current data recovery technology), comes word of yet another personal data theft. The Minnesota Department of Revenue has reported that a data tape containing the names and Social Security Numbers of 2400 Minnesota taxpayers, in addition to data on 48,000 businesses, was possibly stolen from the U.S. Postal Service after being mailed from the department's Brainerd office. The physical theft of personal data, as previously reported by WMR, is part of a covert U.S. intelligence program to populate Total Information Awareness surveillance databases.

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The theft of personal data

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FBI Says Data on VA Laptop Not Accessed
Thursday June 29, 2006 11:31 PM
....Under House questioning, the VA also:

-Disclosed it had lost sensitive data in at least two other cases. In Minneapolis, a VA employee put a laptop containing data for more than 60 veterans in the trunk of his car, which was then stolen. There have been two reports of identity theft from that incident, according to Buyer.

In Indianapolis, a back-up tape containing files on as many as 16,357 legal cases involving veterans was lost from a VA regional office. Nicholson said authorities and the VA inspector general were investigating, and those whose information was lost would be provided credit monitoring.....

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June 25, 2006 -- We have yet another report of personal data being stolen from an office. This time it was a computer stolen from an Allstate office in Huntsville, Alabama that contained personal information on Allstate policy holders. Allstate policy holders in Alabama received the following statement in a letter from Allstate, "an unfortunate situation involving the theft of a computer from your Allstate agent's office ... the computer contained personal information including images of your policy and correspondence."

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June 23, 2006 -- The theft of personal data by what WMR has reported is a covert team of U.S. intelligence agents determined to populate Total Information Awareness surveillance databases has reached a new level of absurdity. Ten days ago, two Federal Trade Commission (FTC) laptops containing personal data on 1100 FTC employees were stolen from the car of an FTC attorney. Ironically, the FTC is charged with combating identity theft in the United States. Meanwhile, the FBI continues to sit idly by, choosing instead to round up Miami residents, including a Haitian ringleader, and charging them with planning to carry out "Al Qaeda" terrorist attacks around the United States, including the Sears Tower in Chicago.

WMR has received "over the transom" letters from the Hawaii Attorney General and Senator Charles Grassley concerning the epidemic of personal data theft throughout the nation. WMR has received further confirmation from government sources that the ongoing thefts are part of an off-the-books and illegal U.S. intelligence operation and the FBI has been ordered to "stand down" on any criminal investigations.