GovernmentExecutive.com

Federal agencies report an average of 30 incidents a day in which Americans' personally identifiable information is exposed, double the number of incidents reported early this summer, according to the top information technology executive in the Bush administration.

The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo in July 2006 requiring agencies to report security incidents that expose personally identifiable information to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team within one hour of the incident. By June 2007, 40 agencies reported almost 4,000 incidents, an average of about 14 per day. As of this week, the average had increased to 30 a day, said Karen Evans, administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology at OMB.

Evans, who spoke Monday at the Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg, Va., an annual gathering of government and industry IT executives, attributed the increase to agencies conducting more thorough reporting on security breaches. "Agencies are erring on the side of [caution], reporting [incidents] first, and then getting more information," Evans said in an interview with Government Executive.

She added that only a small percentage of reported incidents pose a significant risk to Americans' personal information.

But the figure of 30 incidents a day concerned a chief information security officer for a large civilian agency attending the conference. "I was surprised by the number," the CISO said. He added that he reports an average of one security incident a week, which is typically caused by an employee who lost a BlackBerry. Since sensitive data is encrypted and handheld devices can be remotely turned off, the agency avoids security breaches that could result in exposure of personally identifiable information, the CISO said.

OMB's 2006 memo states that agencies should report all incidents involving personally identifiable information in electronic or paper form, and agencies should not distinguish between breaches that are suspected to have resulted in exposing personal information and those that agencies can confirm have resulted in exposing personal information.

"An increase in reporting isn't necessarily a bad thing," Evans said. "It means people don't want to end up on the front of the Washington Post. High [numbers of] reports reflect increased market awareness."

COMMENTS

• Encryption should have been one of the first steps for protecting personal information that needs to be accessed on a regular basis. Not putting it on the top of every form and transmitting it via a non-secure system like NMCI would be another. When we receive or travel orders and when we receive our travel disbursments our entire social security number shown. I suggest removing at least all but the last 4 SSNs from all forms/viewable data on all government records like the medical and banking fields are doing. Federal Traveler Posted October 31, 2007 1:53 PM
• @Bob: Just to clarify, it looks like the 4000 incidents were reported from July 2006 - June 2007. About 250-275 business days depending on the business. This averages out to 14-15 incidents per day. John Doe Posted October 26, 2007 3:12 PM
• This article is disappointing in that it does not indicate what Ms. Evans' Department is doing about the security incidents. Even though "only a small percentage of reported incidents pose a significant risk to Americans' personal information", there is still a "significant risk" to those who had their personal information exposed. What is being done about these exposures? Also, Ms. Evans was not required to identify the what is causing these data exposures, such as stolen laptops, lost back up tapes, etc. and what steps are being taken to reduce the causes. While 40 agencies made reports in June 2007, how many reported in October 2007? Perhaps more agencies are participating in the reporting of data exposures. How many agencies are not participating? Finally, 4,000 incidents for the month of June 2007, does not equal 14 per day whether you divide the 4,000 by 21 business days or 30 calendar days. Bob Speth Posted October 24, 2007 1:18 PM