Man Buys Used Ipod Containing Military Files

Nothing sensitive was obtained (aside from social security numbers), but good grief, can we be a little more careful.

Apparently you can pick up outdated U.S. military files for less than $10. That's what happened to New Zealand's Chris Ogle when he bought a used MP3 player for $9 in Oklahoma. The 29 year old then took his new device home and synced it to his computer, only to discover that it contained U.S. military personnel lists that included social security numbers and cell phone numbers of soldiers stationed overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq. The files, most of which dated from 2005, also contained details of equipment inventories from U.S. bases in Afghanistan, and one mission briefing.

"The more I look at it, the more I see and the less I think I should be!" Ogle told TVNZ's ONE News. While the discovery may prove embarrassing to U.S. officials, the outdated files seem to be of little consequence to national security. However, personal information like social security and phone numbers could have put individual soldiers at risk for identity theft and personal harm.

A similar situation was uncovered in Afghanistan in 2006 when U.S. investigators bought stolen flash drives with military information outside Bagram base--a major U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan.