Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) has asked GAO to review how the Department of Homeland Security shares personal data with third parties, following several recent security incidents in which such information was exposed. Hassan, who serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, cites three incidents that happened between March and June that have raised questions about how DHS shares data with third parties as well as the inability of some contractors to secure that data.
She notes that, while DHS collects and maintains a large volume of citizens’ personally identifiable information as part of its law enforcement mandate, it increasingly depends on third parties for storing and securing large volumes of that data, and attackers have succeeded in exploiting security loopholes to access this data.