New Zealand man accesses US military secrets

According to an article from New Zealand’s ONE news, one of their citizens, Chris Ogle, recently purchased an iPod from  a thrift shop with detailed information about some of the US soldiers. This information has included social security numbers, information about where they are stationed, as well as current cell phone numbers. Each file had a disclaimer reading that the release of it’s contents were “…prohibited by federal law”. Who ever donated the iPod has obviously broken this disclaimer, if they didn’t want the files to be found they could have destroyed the iPod or better yet erased the files. According to the story, many of the files are dated 2005, but regardless of the year peoples personal information is not necessarily likely to change (i.e. their social security number), in the wrong hands this information could potential harm the soldiers by in the most extreme case giving away locations to military bases or in a more likely case giving someone enough information to commit identity fraud. The man has said that he would be happy to give the iPod back to the US government if asked, which seems to me would be the appropriate response for the government to take to protect the security of their soldiers personal information.