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(AP) - U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum has asked the Government
Accountability Office to reopen an investigation into privacy and
national security risks when the federal government sells used
magnetic data tapes, saying a Minnesota company, Imation, has
demonstrated that sensitive material can be pulled off the tapes.

      Last year, the GAO, Congress' investigative arm, issued a report
to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on the
sale of such tapes, which are used for data storage.

      "Based on the limited scope of work we performed, we conclude
that the selling of used magnetic tapes by the government
represents a low security risk, especially if government agencies
comply with NIST guidelines in sanitizing their tapes," the GAO
concluded last September. 

The NIST is the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.

      In a recent letter sent to the GAO, released by McCollum on
Tuesday, the Minnesota Democrat said that GAO investigators spent
some time at the offices of Imation, an Oakdale-based maker of
magnetic data storage products. 

According to McCollum, the
investigators left behind several "recertified" used tapes
purchased on the open market for the company to analyze.

      Imation then did a more thorough review of the tapes, McCollum
said, and found that although the tapes were supposed to be
"clean," the company found data such as bank account numbers,
employee information and international tax benefits documents.

      "If federal agencies are selling used magnetic storage tapes on
the open market with this level of recoverable sensitive data
available to anyone with minimum technical skills or equipment,"
McCollum wrote, "we should all be alarmed and demanding greater
accountability from federal agencies engaged in such sales."

      She urged the GAO to do a broader investigation to ensure that
government agencies are not reselling used tapes from which
sensitive information could be recovered.


      An Imation spokeswoman confirmed McCollum's account of the
testing and data recovery from used tapes Tuesday night, and said
the company had no additional comment. GAO officials declined to
comment Wednesday morning.

      In its report last year, the GAO said that although there is no
general legal requirement that the government erase data on
magnetic tapes before disposing of them, the NIST has issued
guidelines for agencies to sanitize the tapes of sensitive data
before they leave the control of the agency.

      The GAO said it obtained used magnetic tapes and tested them to
see if data could be retrieved.

      "In summary, we could not find any comprehensible data on the
used magnetic tapes we tested," the GAO said. "We obtained these
tapes from the only company (of the five we investigated) that told
us it resells tapes purchased from the federal government."

      According to the report, there is a substantial secondary market
for used magnetic tapes in the U.S.


      The GAO did raise questions "about the lack of oversight
regarding the sanitization or disposal of used magnetic tapes by
agencies."
      

Gallery

Politics and Government News

Fred Frommer

Author

Rep. Betty McCollum has asked a government agency to reopen an investigation into privacy and national security risks when the federal government sells used magnetic data tapes, saying a Minnesota company, Imation, has demonstrated that sensitive material can be pulled off the tapes.

McCollum calls for investigation into government sales of tapes

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