US Fed watchdog flags apparent data breaches by retiring staff member
The employee removed information without seeking approval
The US Federal Reserve's in-house watchdog has reported that a former staff member was found multiple times attempting to remove confidential information before retiring from the central bank in July 2024. However, these incidents did not result in a formal misconduct finding. The Fed's Inspector General (IG) stated that despite the potential severity of the incident, there was not enough evidence to pursue it as a misconduct investigation due to unclear information and many false positive alerts.
The IG report highlighted systemic concerns about the Fed's exit process for employees with access to confidential policymaking information. The departing employee served in the Division of International Finance and had previously copied confidential Federal Open Market Committee files to an unencrypted USB drive in 2021, among other incidents.
The IG emphasized the need for the Board's immediate attention to address the issues and improve data management policies.
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