Wayne Washington reports:
Midlands Technical College warned employees last month that a flash drive containing some of their personal information was taken from a human resources office at the college.
The flash drive, since returned — without the personal data it previously held — could compromise the personal information of some of the college’s 500 employees. But Midlands Tech spokesman Todd Gavin said no problems have been reported by employees so far.
“There’s no reason to believe that anybody’s information was compromised,” Gavin said. “The college is already working on an internal audit of its security to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
If data are acquired and then removed from the device, isn’t that reason to believe that the information was compromised? Or does the college merely mean that there are no reports of identity theft or fraud – yet?
This report is a strange one on a few levels:
In an e-mail dated Feb. 18, Crystal Rookard, human resource director and legal counsel at Midlands Tech, told employees: “We take this situation very seriously and recognize our responsibility to maintain your confidence in our ability to protect confidential information.”
A painter who was working near the human resources office where the flash drive was located has been questioned by law enforcement, Gavin said, adding he does not know if or when charges might be filed.
“We don’t know how it got blank,” Gavin said of the flash drive. “We don’t think it was blank to begin with.”
Rookard told employees, “The individual responsible for removing the flash drive has indicated that the flash drive was not accessed or viewed at any point.”
Then how did the personal information on it get removed – and by whom was it removed?
And what does the college mean “We don’t think it was blank to begin with?” They’re not sure what information or files were on the device? Why not? And has the flash drive been examined forensically to determine what might have been on it if the drive was not really scrubbed?
Read more in The State.