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Three employees of a branch Homeland Security have been accused of stealing a computer system containing the names, social security numbers and dates of birth of 246,000 agency employees. It is suspected that the insiders were trying to modify the software in order to sell a "knockoff" to other Homeland Security offices. The branch has been trying to gather hundreds of thousands of dollars from component agencies to monitor the credit scores of the agency employees whose data was breached. The case is currently being investigated.
I think that while it is not known whether or not any of the employees whose data was stolen was affected by the breach, this security breach can negatively impact a multitude of employees and exposes holes in our national security. I think that Homeland Security should do something to increase their security.
What do you think? Should citizens be concerned over security breaches like these? How should Homeland Security resolve this? If the accused are guilty, how should they be punished?
12 comments:
I think home owner should be concerned I mean this is talking protecting somebodies. If people started selling knockoff brands of homeland securities than there would be even more risk to robberies and peoples own personal information being leaked. Hacking into a homeland security data should be punishable with 10 years in prison at least.
I think that all government workers need to be held to a higher standard and somehow monitored in a better way. This scandal involved strictly other Homeland Security workers, but it is ultimately also a leaking of information of American citizens. Those with power like these agency workers should be scrutinized and perhaps have to deal more transparently with the public, to ensure that public data is safe. It's ironic that the national security agency suffered a security breach, but it does emphasize the dangers of giving any individuals access to a lot of data.
I think this is a bigger concern because American citizens ought to have a right to their privacy, and the government should work to retain these civil liberties. The people whose security was breached are American citizens who deserve the assurance that their information given to the government will not be used against them or for selfish personal gains. Americans have been quick to accuse illegal immigrants as to the only contenders who are responsible for social security threat. Although this is an issue as it is illegal, I think it is worse when government employees commit the crime because it makes us question what else they have done secretly and illegally. The government and Congress should establish strict rules and punishments if employees ever commit crimes such as this. Furthermore, their training should work towards preventing this from happening, stressing the importance and value of civil liberties.
Yes, I think citizens should be concerned because their information could be hacked into if the employees' information could be hacked into.Homeland Security, if possible, should increase and improve their security with information. If the accused are guilty, they should receive jail time because, as Shweta said above, everyone has a right to privacy, and the accused are violating their rights.
I think that normal citizens should not be very concerned. Whenever we hear about big security breaches like yahoo or other companies, I think, although the citizen's information is stolen, it should not be a worry because if a criminal can steal hundreds of thousands of people's information from a big company like yahoo, they can do it to an individual quicker and with less hassle. I think stealing info from one specific person is easier than from a large company, and if no one is stealing your info directly, then you don't have much to worry about because no one is after you. Homeland should resolve this first by checking if anyone else is trying to steal information. It would be terrible if there was another breach during the investigation of the first. They also need to tighten up security everywhere. They cannot focus security in one area because the theft could come from any direct: through hacking, or physical theft. The criminals should be punished just as if they were robbing a jewelry store. The stuff they steal is just as valuable, so the punishment should be the same.
Despite the magnitude of this issue, it should not be a surprise. This is not the first time the government has lost information, and will certainly not be the last. Security can be increased and data loss can be decreased, but it will never be stopped. We must accept the fact that nothing is truly secure, and despite our best efforts information will be stolen in some way. We must deter future thieves by punishing those guilty for this crime, since letting them free would only set an example that America does not take a treasonous breach of security seriously. Sadly, little can be done to solve the root problem. The government must try to do its best to recover from this breach and prepare for other attacks in the future.
I think citizens should be aware that their information can be hacked and the government should let the public know when there is a security breach so citizens are aware that their data is in danger of being stolen. I don't know how much a regular citizen can do to prevent their information from being hacked, that responsibility is on the government. Hopefully the government will have more ways in the future to prevent security breaches like this.
Citizens should be concerned about this issue. If data can be taken this easily there needs to be more protective measures done to prevent this from happening. This should also be more confirmation that nothing on the internet or servers are entirely protected. It is scary to think if info can be stolen from the government, other less protected personal information are more vulnerable. Complete privacy might be hard to ask for but at the least these criminals should be punished(if they are guilty) in order to deter future breaches.
Citizens should most definitely be concerned with security breaches like this Homeland security one. And when things like this happen, it is the governments responsibility to let the public know. Otherwise, trust between the people and the government is broken. I agree with Lucas's reason that major breaches like from companies are most likely not targeting regular citizens. However, citizens should be worried because the personal data that has be stolen contain a lot of private info that only the individual itself know. If the people are caught and prosecuted, they should be banned from any kind of government work and be sentenced to prison.
I think that it is really concerning that data can easily be taken. However, there isn't much that individuals can do about this issue. I think that the government should work to assure their citizens that their personal information is secure. Citizens rights to privacy are being violated, so I think that it is a very serious issue that the Homeland Security should work to improve their security.
Citizens should be very concerned that a worker could simply take hundreds of thousands of citizens information. A regular citizen could not do much about this, but the government should make an effort to protect all citizens by having harsher punishments for these types of actions. Although information can be stolen in various ways, the government needs to take a stand to prevent instances like this one.
Yes, citizens should definitely be concerned with security breaches like these. It is important to recognize that that personal information should not be shared or be easily accessible; however, this is not the first case that something like this has happened. While it is difficult to monitor exactly what goes on, national security should not be compromised just because there are individuals who are curious. This security calls into question the destructive nature of curiosity and further emphasizes that personal responsibility is also a major part in this. Personal responsibility either tied to a judgment that is characterized by good morals or morals that do not benefit the whole and in this case, it did not benefit the whole. Punishment should be given in order to make sure that people do not commit crimes like these again.
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