TSA loses hard drive with employee records

The Transportation Security Agency has reportedly lost an external hard drive from a human resources office in Crystal City, VA containing the personal, bank and payroll information of up to 100,000 former and current TSA employees from January 2002 until August 2005.

The government agency responsible for securing U.S. airports and railroads learned about the missing drive on Thursday but warned the affected employees on Friday evening. Information such as names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, payroll information, bank account numbers, and routing information has been compromised, although the threat of revealing the identities of undercover air marshals has been dismissed by TSA officials claiming “without extensive knowledge of TSA's human resource system, it is extremely difficult to determine what positions employees on the missing hard drive have.” On the other hand, the TSA has not ruled out the possibility that an insider took the drive.

The FBI and U.S. Secret Service are now helping the TSA investigate the whereabouts of the missing drive.