"Unfathomable."
That's how Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut described the incident involving a computer backup tape that was stolen in June from a car in Ohio that contained bank account among other financial data for nearly all Connecticut state agencies as well as sensitive information on 1.3 million Ohio residents, according to an article in the New York Times.
The tape was in a car of an intern working for Accenture, which was hired by both Connecticut and Ohio to develop a computer systems integrating payroll, accounting, personnel and other fiscal functions. According to the Times report, "Rich Harris, a spokesman for Governor Rell, said yesterday that Accenture seemed to have used the program it created for Connecticut as a template for its project in Ohio, 'and it’s our understanding that this is how the data got mixed up' on the tape."
Whoops.
Also, Gov. Reid said,“The depth and breadth of the bank account data breach is shocking. In essence, the state’s banking information has been laid bare.”
To make matters worse, in August, a laptop containing 106,000 Connecticut resident social security numbers was stolen from a Connecticut state employee while he was on vacation. Connecticut residents have to think they are snake-bit.
The back story of the whole sordid stolen tape mess can be found in a report by the Ohio Inspector General. It describes schedule and cost pressures on the $158 million computer development that encouraged a culture of shortcuts, poor risk management decisions, as well as cover-up of mistakes. Sounds like another blunder in the making to me.
I wonder if Accenture was giving Connecticut a reduced price on their computer system development given that it seemed to be reusing a lot of work it had been doing on the Ohio system.
