Data Recovery for Government
By Matt Brennan
Data recovery for government may be different than it appears.
When you think of certain government agencies, you may picture vast amounts of technology that make them immune to problems such as data loss or cyberattacks. You may picture movies and television shows that depict amazing futuristic technologies, capable of amazing feats, and remaining impenetrable to people looking to do harm.
The movies and television that portray government this way don’t really offer a realistic depiction of reality. The truth is that hackers are advanced, and equipment fails, leaving those with some highly essential tasks still vulnerable to some of the same computer and data loss issues.
Maybe we tend to romanticize this type of government work out of a sense of importance to what some of these agencies do. For instance, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are tasked with keeping American citizens safe.
Many other agencies perform critical functions and are responsible for vast amounts of sensitive constituent data. We often don’t want to picture what happens if anything were to happen to that data. But that reality doesn’t make them less immune.
Local, state, and even federal government agencies are susceptible to data loss and cyberattacks just like the rest of us. Actually, government data breaches can often have higher stakes than the corporate world, because the threats are often larger.
Below are a few examples of some large-scale government data breaches from recent years. Proper practices in data recovery for government may help.
Foreign Hackers Steal the Personal Information of 4 Million
Hackers who were believed to be from China stole the personal information of 4 million American residents in 2015. It was unknown if the information was only federal employees, or if it included government contractors. The data was in the hands of the Office of Personnel Management, and the FBI is investigating.
A Flaw in the US Postal Service Site Exposed the Information of 60 Million Users
For a brief period in 2018, anyone could log onto the US Postal Service website and have access to the information of 60 million users. This included email addresses, usernames, User IDs, account numbers, street addresses, phone numbers, and other sensitive data. There was enough information for someone to pose as the owner of the home and have the mail rerouted.
U.S Voter Database Exposed
A database of 191 million US voters was exposed in the largest government data breach to date, back in 2015. The database was incorrectly configured and left exposed on the open internet. There was personal information left exposed that belongs to users across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Government Entities Need to Take Precaution
The public sector remains at a significant amount of risk for data breaches and data security. Significant amounts of damage can be done when private citizens’ sensitive personal information is left exposed. It’s important that government IT and cybersecurity officials take appropriate measures to safeguard this data wherever possible. Proper data recovery for government can help.
In the event of lost or unrecoverable data, it helps to contact an expert data recovery specialist.
