The Government Accountability Office still has not responded to warnings that "erased" magnetic tapes currently being resold by federal government agencies may contain recoverable data.
In a Jan. 22 letter to the GAO, congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) requested that the GAO reconsider its sanctioning of the resale of used magnetic tapes by government agencies.
More than three weeks after the letter was sent, McCollum still has not received an answer, a spokesman said earlier today.
McCollum's request was triggered by researchers at storage vendor Imation, who questioned a September GAO report, which concluded an investigation into the recoverability of data on magnetic tapes.
In its investigation, the GAO spoke to five companies, including several of the companies that resell federal government storage media, about the potential recoverability of data on the magnetic tapes. The GAO found that the risk of an attacker recovering sensitive data from the tapes was minimal, and it allowed federal agencies to continue reselling the erased surplus storage media.
After the GAO approval was issued, however, researchers at Imation, which makes magnetic tapes, reported that they were able to recover a wide range of sensitive information from used data tapes that were supposedly wiped clean before being resold.
-----------------------
I love the GAO and I am surprised that they would let this type of thing happen...with sensitive information.
Do they really believe that foreign agents / governments don't have the resources to restore this data?
No comments:
Post a Comment