Nearly a third of employee desks checked after the close of business by a government watchdog at five Department of Homeland Security agencies had sensitive materials, laptops, cell phones and “For Office Use Only” documents left unsecured.
Many of the unsecured materials included system passwords and personal information that could be used for identity theft, according to the department’s inspector general, based on checks performed by audit contractor KPMG, LLP. The checks found 218 of 686 inspected desks — nearly 32 percent — were left unsecured.
More than half of the 72 desks checked at the Transportation Security Administration were left unsecured. Nearly one-third of the 270 inspected Coast Guard workspaces had unsecured sensitive materials left out in the open.
More than 25 percent of the desks inspected at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were left unsecured after hours.
“These documents show that in cyber or any other form of security, people are often the weakest link,” said David Inserra, a research associate in homeland security and cybersecurity at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “It makes training and accountability parts of what we need to do to improve our cybersecurity and information security practices.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a Washington Examiner request for comment.
