http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/03/AR2008070303799.html



By Glenn Kessler

Washington Post Staff Writer

July 4, 2008



Government workers repeatedly snooped without authorization inside the 

electronic passport records of entertainers, athletes and other 

high-profile Americans, a State Department audit has found. One 

celebrity's records were breached 356 times by more than six dozen 

people.



The audit, by State's inspector general, was prompted by the discovery 

in March that three of the department's contract workers had peeked at 

the private passport files of Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain and 

that a State Department trainee had examined the file of Sen. Hillary 

Rodham Clinton.



The report documented a widespread lack of controls on the personal data 

of the 127 million Americans who hold passports, finding numerous 

"weaknesses, including a general lack of policies, procedures, guidance 

and training." The State Department had maintained that its system 

worked when the candidates' passport breaches were discovered.



"This is unacceptable. The report makes it clear that the private 

information of over 100 million Americans is vulnerable to unauthorized 

access," said Sen Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.).



[...]





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Received on Fri Jul 04 2008 - 02:18:47 PDT