Well, some idiot has done

it again (carelessly handled other people’s private information) and this time someone needs to serve some serious prison time if only

to set an example and put an end to this absurd situation where schools,

hospitals, and government all demand our personal information before rendering services and then hand out our information to anyone who bothers to pick it up.

The Associated Press is reporting that a Veterans

Affairs employee took files (probably unencrypted files or the FBI wouldn’t be so excited about it) home with him/her, where they were

promptly stolen.

So what has happened to the idiot? Is he/she in jail? Ya

gotta be kidding, he/she works for the federal government so they are on leave –

the statement didn’t say, but I bet it is on full paid leave.

What will it take to stop this rampant careless handling of our private information?

I favor drawing and quartering, perhaps during a prime-time TV special, but that may be a bit too

draconian for these kinder, gentler days, after all, it only costs those

who have had their identity stolen 6 months to 5 years, to forever to

straighten out the problem. Even if nothing bad happens, people will worry and have to spend time watching their accounts closely because they know they have been made vulnerable. 

Why should federal employee actually get punished for causing such problems for millions of people?

I think that if the VA employee doesn’t serve serious prison

time (and you know they won’t), he/she should just be named, complete with his/her birth date, mother’s

maiden name, and SS# of course.

Yea, come to think of it, that’s the perfect punishment for such people, whether they are in government, academia, or private companies – if your dumb carelessness exposes people to identity theft then YOUR personal information should be posted on a Web site.

What do you think? I’ll volunteer to run the Web site.