A New Zealand man has found personal details of US
soldiers on an MP3 player he bought second-hand in
Oklahoma.
About60 files on the MP3 playercontained lists of soldiers based
in Afghanistan, the names of some who have fought in Iraq and
mobile numbers for soldiers based overseas.
Most of the files found are dated 2005, but some are still
active and could have put individual soldiers at risk, according to
a New Zealand
television news report.
In November 2008 the US Defence Department banned the use of
portable data storage devices.
The MP3 player also contained details of equipment deployed to
the bases and private information about soldiers, such as social
security numbers.
The US Army and the American embassy in New Zealand have refused
to comment, the television news report said.
An IT manager at the University of Oxford found the
personal bank details of more than one million people on a
computer bought on eBay in August.