Is The Government Reselling Tapes With Sensitive Data?Is The Government Reselling Tapes With Sensitive Data?

A congresswoman has called for an investigation into privacy and national security risks associated with the resale of data tapes.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum said Tuesday that federal agencies may have resold magnetic data tapes after wiping them clean, but that a private company recovered sensitive information. The information included the origin of the tapes, bank account numbers, tax and benefit information, expense reports, and more.

Investigators with Imation, a company that produces the tape, recovered the information after investigators from the Government Accountability Office failed to do so, she said.

The Democrat from Minnesota said that GAO investigators left the tapes in her office after examining them for less than two hours and concluded that sensitive information could not be retrieved using standard equipment. Then, Imation employees looked at the same tapes using standard equipment and uncovered the information, she said.

"Using a tape drive, a standard PC, programming knowledge, and understanding how data is written to media (which is publicly available), and a little more time than the GAO investigation, Imation personnel found the following recoverable sensitive data on these used tapes certified as clean: the origin of the tape, bank account numbers, employee information, travel expense reports, audit procedures and results, employee savings plan balances, international tax benefits documents," McCollum said in a letter demanding an investigation.

McCollum wants the GAO to re-examine the issue to make sure government agencies like the Federal Reserve and U.S. Air Force do not resell tapes and expose information that could put individuals or national security at risk.

"If federal agencies are selling used magnetic storage tapes on the open market with this level of recoverable sensitive data available to anyone with minimum technical skills or equipment," McCollum explained in a letter requesting the investigation, "we should all be alarmed and demanding greater accountability from federal agencies engaged in such sales."