Authorities Inquiry Missing Disc With Clinton Cabinet Data
Among the files on the disc were 100,000 Social Security numbers, including that of one of former Vice President Al Gores daughters, contact information for officials who served in the Clinton administration, logs of events and “other highly-sensitive information,” according to a statement from the office of Representative Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Overnight and Government Reform Committee.
“The full extent of the contents of the drive is still being investigated,” the statement said.
Democratic Representative Edolphus Towns of New York, chairman of the committee, called it a “serious security breach.”
The disc was lost sometime between October 2008 and March 2009 and a criminal probe is underway by the Archives inspector general and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Susan Cooper, director of communications for the Archives, said the loss was confirmed in early April and the inspector general immediately began a criminal investigation.
The Archives also “immediately undertook a review of our internal controls and we have implemented improved security processes,” Cooper said in a statement.
Call for Investigation
Issa called for a congressional investigation.
“This egregious breach raises significant questions regarding the security protocols that are in place at the National Archives and Records Administration,” Issa said.
Clinton spokesman Mark McKenna said officials at the Clinton Foundation have been informed about the lost data. The foundation wont have any further statement because of the criminal investigation, he said.
The disc, which contained one terabyte of data, is missing from the Archives facility in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. The statement from Issas staff quoted the inspector general as saying that one terabyte of data is the approximate equivalent of “millions of books.”