In an alarming incident, a Fox News investigation has discovered that the U.S. military data collected by biometric capture devices, such as fingerprint scanners, facial recognition systems and iris scanners, were being sold off on a popular online marketplace, eBay. Following the initial discovery on July 29, 2018, after Fox News reached out to eBay and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the items have been taken down from the site.
The Fox investigation revealed that several DoD biometric capture devices were being sold by a legitimate government contractor who purchased the biometric capture devices from the DoD surplus, rather than them just appearing on the online marketplace. The devices came with a large amount of data, including fingerprints, faceprints, iris images, plus other sensitive biometric data. The facial recognition items were being sold for prices ranging from $60 to $2,799, according to the investigation.
The most concerning aspect of this story is the large amount of sensitive biometric data which was seems to have been collected from U.S military personnel. U.S Military personnel are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 which dictates that government agencies have the responsibility to protect the personal information of individuals and this investigation indicates that this data which was likely collected by the DoD was not properly safeguarded.
The U.S. Army is currently carrying out an investigation into the incident in order to understand why the biometric data was sold on the online marketplace and whether the data was licitly acquired or unlawfully taken. The Army has also asked all the staff involved in the incident to “cease and desist” from any sales activity until the inquiry is concluded and the outcome is known.
As technology becomes evermore invasive and hackers become more and more sophisticated, data breaches like these are becoming an increasingly common occurrence. The incident serves as an important reminder for companies and organizations to take the proper measures when protecting their customers’ information, data and privacy. So far, eBay and the DoD have acted swiftly to ensure that the data collected by the biometric devices are not further distributed. It will be interesting to see what is uncovered by the U.S. Army investigation and how they attempt to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
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