Safeguarding sensitive data must be priority

The announcement this week that sensitive personal information about more that 700 Yuma Proving Ground workers could have been compromised is a cautionary note about the importance of safeguarding data.

The incident involves people working at YPG from 2005 to 2007. It needs to be noted that it is not certain that any identity information was actually taken, but it is a possibility. There have been no reports of identity theft so far and employees are being alerted simply as a precaution, according to YPG spokesman Chuck Wullenjohn.

The irony is that the information apparently was lost out of a desire to safeguard it from harm. An employee in the YPG Resource Management Division took the information home and put it on a computer there in a misguided effort to support a continuity of operations program at the base in the event of an emergency. It was that home computer that was compromised.

YPG is certainly not the first government entity where data has been put in danger. There have been reports of data loss at other agencies around the nation. And there have been major losses of personal data reported at large private businesses in the past, sometimes due to employee carelessness and sometimes due to poor security procedures.

The reality is that more and more personal data is being stored on computers and in databases and it is a prime target for scammers and computer hackers.

Government entities, like YPG, often have strict security policies regarding their computers, yet even they can fall victim to carelessness and mistakes. The human factor is always there, even with the best policies.

Every private business and public entity in Yuma County should take note of what happened in this case and redouble their efforts to safeguard the information of their workers and their customers. It is essential in this era of cyber theft.