The Washington Post seems to have jumped in on a breach first exposed by the Ventura County Star. Federal Diary reports:
In case of danger or a natural disaster, the U.S. Navy can rapidly dispatch troops, fighter jets or relief supplies to troubled areas around the world.
So why did it take the Navy 17 months to inform employees at the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center in Port Hueneme, Calif., that their Social Security numbers had been inadvertently released?
The information was sent in May 2008 to three other employees whose security access had been suspended for reasons unrelated to the information breach.
E-mails obtained by The Washington Post indicate that Navy officials quickly realized employees should be informed. But that was not done until October 2009. The names of those sending and receiving the messages were blocked out, but their offices, and in some cases their positions, were not.
Read more in the Washington Post.
The Associated Press broke the story on February 19, 2010, here, but I seem to have missed that story. Capt. Paz B. Gomez of Port Hueneme, CEC, U.S. Navy, commanding officer of the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, wrote a letter to the editor about the story on February 23, here. Now Raul Hernandez of the VC Star provides more on how those affected are not happy with the official response and want the Navy to provide ID theft/credit monitoring services.