Passport snooping public servant faces year in the can
'Idle curiosity' spurs celeb data breach
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
A bored former State Department analyst faces up to a year behind bars as a result of his penchant for reading the passport files of celebrities.
Lawrence Yontz, 48, of Arlington, Virginia, looked as the passport applications of Barack Obama and John McCain as well as various unnamed celebs, athletes, businessmen, and even game show contestants between February 2005 and March 2008.
Yontz admitted accessing around 200 passport records on Monday in violation of State Department rules on authorised access to computer records as part of a plea-bargaining deal.
He used the State Department's Passport Information Electronic Records System, which hold data on 127 million US passport holders, as an encyclopedia for no other reason than "idle curiosity," according to a DoJ statement on the case, Wired reports.
Around 20,000 workers have access to the system which was slammed as being run without "policies, procedures, guidance, and training" by a government audit back in July.
The audit was prompted by public reports of the unauthorised access to the passport records system by three workers, which created a huge stink.
The other workers involved in the affair avoided criminal prosecution but faced internal disciplinary hearings that concluded they were motivated by nothing worse than curiosity, Computerworld reports.
Yontz is the only person charged in the case. By drawing attention to the security shortcomings of the system, he may have inadvertently done everyone a favour in helping to spur action to prevent identity theft-motivated data harvesting, or other such serious malfeasance, in future. Computerworld adds that systems in place at the time of the breaches warned that sensitive data was been accessed for no good reasons but managers failed to act on these warnings.
Yontz faces a sentencing hearing penciled in for 19 December. ®
COMMENTS
databaase is a typo
Why aren't medical records and other 'sensitive' databases hooked up to leave marks behind saying who accessed them when, and for what reason??
Of course snooping goes on all around us, the problem is getting caught. I am curious as to what purpose snooping at passports serves though..
IMO anyone who snoops at important details (bank, medical etc belonging to ANYONE) ought to get about 3 to 5 years in jail or at least 1 year minimum. Firing someone is a ridiculous 'punishment' and well worth the risk when you consider there is almost no chance of getting caught (let alone punished) and an amazing amount of juicy/damaging info to be gained.
@ EnricoSuarve
Thats why they had to grant immunity because the way the law was written. When I was at SBC I did see people get walked for accessing people records with out cause . Dont know what its like on that side of the pond, but the local telcos will fire people for that kind of crap. In a gov job it takes alot more I'll admit that.
@Kain Preacher
So 'Retrospective Immunity' didn't happen then?
Face it your privacy laws don't count unless it's someone important that gets peeked - other than that sounds like you have to access hundreds of records before anyone even bothers to notice
No one is saying everyone should have access to your records - quite the reverse, we just tend to be realists and admit that if you give people the ability then they will. Laws don't stop this, they just punish the people dumb enough to peek on the wrong people
Go back to sleep and they might let you 'vote' for your new overlord in a few months
Smiley cos it's either that or cry
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
What you need to know about cloud backup
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything
