A data breach at the National Archives and Records Administration is more serious than previously believed. It involved sensitive personal information of 250,000 Clinton administration staff members, job applicants and White House visitors, as well as the Social Security number of at least one daughter of former Vice President Al Gore.

The data, which included more than 100,000 Social Security numbers, was stored on a computer hard drive that the NARA discovered missing last April from a data processing room in Maryland. It's unknown if the drive was lost or stolen.

Last month, the NARA sent out about 150,00 letters to former Clinton staff members and White House visitors warning them that their information was involved in the breach, putting them at risk for identity theft. The agency said it is still identifying potential victims and will send more letters as it does.

Earlier this year, the NARA had sent out only about 26,000 letters to people affected by the breach. It didn't know at the time how many other potential victims it might uncover.

The NARA, which has been under fire for the breach, has offered one year of free credit monitoring, identify theft insurance and fraud resolution assistance to those affected by the breach. It has also offered a $50,000 reward for the return of the external hard drive.

The hard drive was part of a collection of electronic storage tapes with data from computers belonging to former employees of the Clinton administration, according to news reports. Data for Executive Office staff was on the drive, as well as Secret Service and White House operating procedures, event logs, social-gathering logs and political records.

Former Vice President Al Gore has three daughters, Karenna, Kristin and Sarah. Fox News reports that the Social Security number of at least one of the daughters was on the missing hard drive, but didn't indicate which daughter.

The NARA was harshly criticized for another potential data breach it may have suffered involving the records of 70 million U.S. military veteran. The records were on a defective hard drive that the agency sent to the drive vendor for repair. The agency failed to delete data on the drive before sending it to the vendor. When the vendor determined the drive couldn't be repaired, it passed the drive to another company for recycling.

Photo courtesy of National Archives

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