More companies losing data
It is nice to be notified that your personal information has been lost by UPS. I got a letter the other day from my prior health insurance agency for my prior job. It seems that a “data tape” containing over 200,000 current and prior peoples information has been lost by UPS during transit to a “data analyst”. Some quotes from the letter they sent:
A mainframe computer tape containing your and your dependents’ name, address and social security number was reported as lost by United Parcel Service while in route to XXXXX’s data anaylst.
So what makes a “mainframe computer tape” different from any other computer tape. Nothing just trying to “sound” big and important to the people they are now having to tell that they screwed up.
Every effort possible is being made to recover the missing data tape. The tape is of a type which cannot be read using a personal computer (PC). The tape is only accessible using highly specialized and expensive equipment, usually only possessed by large, sophisticated business entities.
Now the last time I looked a tape is a tape is a tape. It does not matter if you are using a PC or a Mainframe or a Sun box. As long as you have the hardware to physically read the tape then it can be read. Whether you can get data off of it is another thing. I like the second set of buzz words they use too: “only accessible using highly specialized…. usually only possessed by large, sophisticated business entities.”
You can tell they are trying to “calm” the people down to make it seem like it is not as a big of a deal that you would think it is. Funny thing is that if the “person” who has the tape really wanted to read it all they need to do is look at ebay.. I can find a “mainframe” tape drive on there for about $700.
Now here is hoping that the data on the tape is actually encrypted, but I bet it is not because most people don’t even bother encrypting the data they put on tapes… Not that it is hard to do with either software or hardware, they just don’t think they will ever have a problem with “losing” a tape till one is lost.
Any way enough with this rant. Guess it is time to go look and see if any one has actually started to use the data.
