Sig Christensen has the confirmation for my hunch that the SAIC breach involved theft and not just loss of the backup tapes:
Science Applications International Corp., a Pentagon contractor, said Thursday the worker had been given the job of taking the tapes from one federal facility to another when they were stolen.
A San Antonio police report said the tapes containing the sensitive information, including diagnoses and treatment information on beneficiaries in the Defense Department’s Tricare program, were left in the car for most of the day.
[…]
Police said the car was parked at 300 Convent from 7:53 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 13. A stereo system valued at $300 was taken from the worker’s 2003 Honda Civic, as was a GPS device and the backup tapes. The worker valued the data tapes at $100.
Read more on MySanAntonio.com.
As I indicated previously, this appears to be the second report of stolen backup tapes from SAIC since June 2010. Despite the losses, the firm continues to earn huge contracts with the government.