FAA Employee Database Hacked

And the beat goes on....

The Associated Press reported last week that hackers broke into a Federal Aviation Administration employee database accessing the personally identifiable information of 45,000 employees and retirees. The break-in was disclosed by the FAA in an announcement to union representatives. An FAA representative confirmed that the event took place last week.

Tom Waters , president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3290 said union leaders were told hackers gained access to two files. One file had the names and Social Security numbers of 45,000 employees and retirees on the FAA's rolls as of February 2006. Social security numbers can be used to steal identities for illicit purposes.
Waters said the other file contained medical information that was encrypted.

An FAA contracts attorney complained that federal computer systems "should be the best in the world" and not vulnerable to hackers; the FAA said this was the first incident of its kind to affect the agency.