Stolen Drive, Tribal Data Breach

The theft of a hard drive that contained personal information on members of two Montana tribes constitutes a data breach.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs said late Tuesday that more than 20,000 members of the Montana Crow and Northern Cheyenne Tribes were notified that an external hard drive was stolen last month from an agency law enforcement vehicle in Big Horn County.

Nedra Darling of the BIA said the investigation has been turned over to the Big Horn County sheriff’s office to decide if criminal charges are warranted against those responsible for the theft.  The unencrypted device contained names, addresses, birthdates and tribal enrollment information for members of the two tribes.  BIA Director Weldon Bruce Loudermilk said in a letter to tribal members that he was confident the hard drive was not accessed and no information was compromised.