The union that represents airport security screeners employed by the Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday filed suit against the TSA over last week's loss of a hard drive containing personal data on around 100,000 employees.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), along with four security screeners, charged that the TSA had recklessly violated the Privacy Act and also violated the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The class action suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington yesterday.
The union has asked the court to force the TSA to do a better job safeguarding sensitive information about its employees such as bank records, payroll records, SSNs -- all of which were stored on the hard drive that vanished. AFGE wants the TSA to encrypt personnel data and electronically monitor any equipment that stores the data.
"If the stolen information were to fall into the wrong hands, false identity badges easily could be created in order to gain access to secure areas," said AFGE chief John Gage. "This is the Department of Homeland Security we are talking about. The American people look to DHS for security and protection. A DHS agency that cannot even shield its own employee data is not reassuring."
AFGE sent Wired News a .pdf copy of the lawsuit this morning. If you want to see more, click here: Download AFGE_v_Hawley_Privacy_Act.pdf
