President-elect Obama’s Cell Phone Records Breached

This may be added incentive for President-elect Obama to give up his Blackberry, laptop and any other civilian communication devices which he may have used. Security is simply not adequate. Not only are there external threats but security breaches can come from within:

“Most large organizations take strong measures to keep outsiders from accessing their customers’ data, but when it comes to insiders, they’re lackadaisical, to say the least. Verizon Wireless apologized to President-elect Obama after learning that employees had been snooping into his cell phone account records, but whether the company will change its access procedures is unknown.”

link: Obama’s Cell Phone Records Breached in Verizon Inside Job

The security implication of the activities of the next President of the United States is obvious. However, this is not an isolated incident. For example, in the fall of 2007, the actor George Clooney and his passenger were involved in a motorcycle accident. Twenty seven people (perhaps more) accessed his personal medical records without authorization. Consider then the move toward putting people’s confidential medical records online in the e-health initiate. The concerns for privacy and security extend to a network which, by design, is massive and far reaching.

If President-elect Obama’s records were breached so easily, it speaks to the security of the electronic records of the common citizen. And yes, someone will be interested in your records.

Catherine Forsythe