http://cjonline.com/stories/061908/sta_292615657.shtml
By James Carlson
The Capital-Journal
June 19, 2008
The Kansas Department of Administration is tightening its computer
security standards after an audit revealed Wednesday that state
equipment slated for sale to the public contained confidential
information.
A review of the state surplus property program, which sells outdated
equipment to the public, found seven of the 15 machines inspected
contained information considered confidential under state and federal
law, including one computer that still had 2,856 Social Security numbers
in a file.
"After reading through this report, I had to take a couple nitroglycerin
tablets and go lay down," said Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, a member of the
Legislative Post Audit Committee that received the results.
Some of the computers were reformatted, but that doesn't permanently
delete all files. Auditor Allan Foster demonstrated an off-the-shelf
program that can retrieve such data off a hard drive.
He said some state agencies had policies for properly removing
information but thought the surplus program would wipe the hard drives
clean. Other agencies had no policy at all.
[...]
Received on Fri Jun 20 03:05:52 2008