Recently it has come to national attention through a class-action lawsuit that was filed against the Veterans’ Affairs Department. The full article is outlined at Federal Computer Week. To outline the situation, the VA had gotten one laptop stolen in 2006 that contained sensitive individual data. The laptop was reported stolen from a VA employee’s home by vandals. Because of this event, the VA was concerned that the secure information that was contained on the laptop would be leaked to unauthorized individuals creating a serious security threat. It had been found, after authorities had retrieved the laptop, that the criminals were unable to access the data that was stored on the laptop. However, because the laptop with sensitive information was stolen, all veterans could have been affected. Lawyers said there could have been a loss of individual information including Social Security Numbers, medical histories, and other personal data. The US Attorney’s office conceded to the lawsuit and settled by paying $20 million to the affected individuals.

The most important aspect of this case is that this security threat was created by the loss of ONE laptop. Many state governments are cracking down on the enforcement of sensitive data policies. California, Nevada and now Massachusetts have passed new legislation that add significant prescribed security controls in support of their previous data privacy regulations. The new Massachusetts law has stringent requirements for corporations that process or store the personally identifiable information (PII) of Massachusetts residents.

The Workshare products can protect against data lost either by the before mentioned incident or from information being leaked out from email or instant message. Because governmental entities will be cracking down on personal information leaks of state residence, and because Workshare is the leader in protecting data, companies will need to recognize the value add of Workshare products. Governments will be cracking down much harder on sensitive data loss because it represents easy revenue from organizations they know will have to adhere to the policy.