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Published Incidents Involving Hidden Data 
This page contains links to articles about hidden data that has caused embarassment or problems.  Only a very small subset of these incidents are published by the press.  Many more go undetected or unreported.  Studies done by numerous agencies indicate that the occurance rate of  hidden data in electronic document is extremely high.

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1. Tracked Changes and Ad Hoc Review

Microsoft Outlook automatically enables Tracked Changes without warning when a Word, PowerPoint, or Excel file is attached to an email. As a result, 20-30% of the Microsoft Office files on the Internet are Tracking Changes. This may be even higher in the U. S. Government, where Outlook is the preferred email client. This type of hidden data is the most commonly reported. These incidents are exclusively associated with Word becuase many people know about Tracked Changes in Word. If people knew that PowerPoint and Excel had Tracked Changes and how to recover the information, you would see a lot more of these incidents.
  1. Moore, Pete, "The secret Iraq documents my 8-year-old found," Salon.com 18 may 2007.
    www.salon.com | Archive

  2. Ewalt, David M., "When Words Come Back From The Dead," Forbes.com, 13 Dec 2005.
    http://www.forbes.com/ | archive

  3. Wait, Patience, and Onley, Dawn S., "Document security flap at U.N. causes uproar," GCN Magazine, 25 Oct 2005.
    http://www.gcn.com/ | archive

  4. Millman, Rene', "Expert blasts Home Secretary email blunder," SC Magazine, 16 Sep 2005.
    http://www.scmagazine.com/ | archive

  5. Sturgeon, Will, "Blunder in Word shows government terror doubts, When will they learn?," Silicon.com, 16 Sep 2005.
    software.silicon.com | archive

  6. Hamburger, Tom, "Nonpartisan Testimony Gets White House Edit," Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2005.
    http://www.latimes.com/ | archive

  7. Hayes, Simon, "Canberra crackdown on Office leaks," Austrailian IT News, 20 May 2004.
    australianit.news.com.au | archive

  8. Johnson, Nick, "Alcatel [Expletive Deleted] Up Bigtime," Morons in the News, Apr. 14, 2001.
    web.morons.org | archive

  9. "Danish Prime Minister Gets Bitten by Word," The Sydney Morning Herald (smh.com.au), January 13, 2004.
    http://www.smh.com.au/ | archive

  10. Shankland, Stephen and Ard, Scott, "Document shows SCO prepped lawsuit against BofA," CNET News, March 4, 2004.
    news.com.com | archive

Data doesn’t have to be hidden to be overlooked. The very purpose of formatting is to call the readers attention to certain data deemed to be more important than other data. This occurs frequently when information is posted to the web. Human nature is to focus on the data to be published, which overlooking other data in the document that may not be appropriate.
  1. "Air security document posted in error on Net," Associated Press International, 8 Dec 2009.
    Original Story | Archive

  2. Nakashima, Ellen , "Soldiers' Data Still Being Downloaded Overseas, Firm Says," Washington Post, 2 Oct 2009.
    Original Story | Archive

  3. Moscaritolo, Angela, "First lady's safe house location leaked on P2P," SC Magazine, 29 July 2009.
    Original Story | Archive

  4. Krazit, Tom, "Slip-up spills beans on Dell notebooks," CNET News, 1 Feb 2006.
    Original Story | Archive

  5. "Google gaff exposed user log-in data," The INQUIRER, 23 Jan 2007.
    Original Story | Archive

  6. Hales, Paul, "Google gaff outs GDrive plans ," The INQUIRER, 7 Mar 2006.
    Original Story | Archive

  7. Lipowicz, Alice, "DOD: Controlled but unclassified data is leaking," FCW, 27 Oct 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  8. Gedda, Rodney, "Oops, e-mail security vendor McAfee spills 1400 private names Recipients asked to
    delete the leaked data," ComputerWorld, 29 July 2009
    Original Story | Archive

  9. Vijayan, Jaikumar, "Colorado state Web site dishes out SSNs of CEOs, other top execs," ComputerWorld, 8 October 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  10. Giordano, Maria, "Student ID breach embroils thousands," Tennessean.com, 11 July 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  11. "Military Files Left Unprotected Online," Associated Press, 12 July 2007.
    military.com

  12. Nakashima, Ellen, "U.S. Exposed Personal Data," Washington Post, 21 Apr 2007
    www.washingtonpost.com | Archive

  13. Chan, Wade-Hahn, "Census Bureau accidentally exposes personal data," FCW, 8 Mar 2007.
    www.fcw.com | Archive

  14. Brewin, Bob, "Navy: Exposed personal data was Katrina-related," FCW, 27 Jun 2006.
    http://www.fcw.com/ | archive

  15. Bloys, David, "The Truth About Redaction," News for Public Officials, undated.
    www.davickservices.com | Archive

3. Embedded OLE Objects

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is the glue that lets us embedded the data from one application (like Excel) into another application (like PowerPoint). Unfortunately, when you embed an OLE object, you embed a complete copy of the original file, not just the visible data.
  1. Hillhouse, R, J.,"Office of Nation's Top Spy Inadvertently Reveals Key to Classified National Intel Budget," thespywhobilledme.com, 3 June 2007.
    www.thespywhobilledme.com | Archive

4. Hidden Data Ported to Adobe PDF

Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) has an undeserved reputation as a safe file format because it works through a print driver. PDF documents are not the same as hard copy printout. PDF documents contain metadata, layered images, and other data that is hidden in the original document.
  1. Terdiman, Daniel, "Bad PDF formatting reveals Google Voice numbers," CNET News, 30 Oct 2009.
    Original Story | Archive

  2. Kincaid, Jason, "The AP Reveals Details of Facebook/ConnectU Settlement With Greatest Hack Ever," Tech Crunch, 11 February 2009.
    Original Story | Archive

  3. Beard, Jeff, "Yet Another Redaction Infraction," LawTech Guru Blog, 5 Jun 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  4. Malan, Douglas S., "GE Suffers a Redaction Disaster," The Connecticut Law Tribune, 28 May 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  5. Wait, Patience, "White House accidentally exposes data in PDF file," GCN Magazine, 5 Dec 2005.
    http://www.gcn.com/ | archive

5. Improper PDF Redaction

Printing to PDF is NOT the same as printing to paper. If the data is not properly redacted in the original document, then it will not be redacted in the PDF version of that document. NSA and Adobe have published guidelines for redacting Microsoft Word documents, but those guidelines do not address many types of hidden data that will port into the PDF document.
  1. Vijayan, Jaikumar, "E-mail snafu exposes names of confidential witnesses in federal probe," ComputerWorld, 8 January 2009.
    Original Story | Archive

  2. Jones, Ashby, "Doh! FTC Gaffe Spills Beans on Whole Foods," Wall Street Journal, 16 Aug 2007.
    Original Story | Archive

  3. Rugaber, Christopher S., "Error by FTC Reveals Whole Foods' Trade Secrets," Associated Press, 15 August 2007.
    Original Story | Archive

  4. Stine, Stephen, "Electronic Document Redaction and the FTC," American Bar Association, Undated.
    Original Story | Archive

  5. Cashmore, Pete, "Joost’s Deal Plans Hidden in PDF Presentation," Mashable Social Networking News, 18 May 2007.
    Original Story | Archive

  6. Raimondo, Justin, "Redaction Alert! White House edits Aug. 6 presidential briefing, then claims it's been 'declassified.,'" Antiwar.com Behind the Headlines, 14 April 2004.
    Orignal Story | Archive

  7. Liptak, Adam, "Prosecutors Can't Keep a Secret in Steroid Case," New York Times, 23 Jun 2006.
    http://www.nytimes.com/ | archive

  8. McCullagh, Declan, "AT&T leaks sensitive info in NSA suit," CNet News, 30 May 2006.
    http://news.com.com/ | archive

  9. Jesdanum, Anick, "Military Mistake caused data leak," Associated Press, 2 May 2005.
    http://www.businessweek.com/ | archive

  10. Foss, Kurt, "PDF Secrets Revealed: PDF file redaction snafu exposes agents' identities," Planet PDF, undated.
    http://www.planetpdf.com/ | archive

  11. Foss, Kurt, "Washington Post's scanned-to-PDF Sniper Letter More Revealing Than Intended," Planet PDF, 26 October 2002.
    http://www.planetpdf.com/ | archive

  12. Poulsen, Keven, "Justice e-sensorship gaffe sparks controversy", Security Focus, 22 October 2003.
    http://www.securityfocus.com/ | archive

  13. Leyden, John, "Pentagon uber-hacker rap sheet spills attach details," The Register, 11 July 2005.
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/ | archive

6. Miscellaneous Hidden Data Issues

Articles in this section discuss general Meta data incidents or multiple incidents. Meta data is a well-known problem, and it is the first thing most people think about when you mention hidden data. Meta data is a serious issue, but it is only one small part of a much larger hidden data problem.
  1. Bill Gertz, Bill, "Inside the Ring: Classified spillage," The Washington Times, 8 January 2009.
    Original Story | Archive

  2. Turton, Stuart, "Photographs contain digital fingerprints," PCPro, 18 Nov 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  3. Moses, Asher, "I'm a PC' made on a Mac," The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  4. Wait, Patience, "Army Shuts Down Site for Scrubbing," FederalNewsRadio, 4 April 2008.
    Original Link | Archive

  5. Naraine, Ryan, "Washington Post Caught in Metadata Gaffe?," eWeek.com, 22 February 2006.
    Original Story | Archive

  6. Kopytoff, Verne, "Google's gaffe reveals internal secrets," SFGate, 8 March 2006.
    Original Story | Archive

  7. Chastain, Sue, "TechTV's Cat Schwartz Exposed: Is Photoshop To Blame?," About.com, 26 July 2003.
    Original Story | Archive

  8. Modine, Austin, "Metadata ruins Google's anonymous eBay Australia protest," The Register, 30 May 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  9. Young, Jeffrey R., "Microsoft Word's Hidden Tags Reveal Once-Anonymous Peer Reviewers," The Chronical of Higher Education, 21 April 2006.
    Original Story | Archive

  10. "Ex-Clintonite sends out press release from new organization with Hillary contact info," CNN Newswire, 7 May 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  11. Ball, Craig, "Clumsy Redaction Can Spell Negligence," Law Technology News, 25 Feb 2008.
    Original Story | Archive

  12. Weller, Robert, "Report: Official Sites, Not Bloggers, Breaching Army Security," The Associated Press, 22 Aug 2007.
    Original Story | Archive

  13. Acohido, Byron, "Cyberspies exploit Microsoft Office," USA TODAY, 23 Apr 2007.
    www.usatoday.com | Archive

  14. Walker, Jessica M., "What's a Little Metadata Mining Between Colleagues?," Daily Business Review, 21 April 2006.
    www.law.com | Archive

  15. Burt, Brandon, "So You’re Thinking of Becoming a Cheat," Salt Lake City Weekly, 17 Aug 2006.
    www.cityweekly.com | archive

  16. OFFICE WATCH, Vol. 11 No. 33, 17 Aug 2006.
    www.office-watch.com | archive

  17. Ferguson, Iain, "Hit send...and regret it," ZDNet Australia, 4 Nov 2005.
    http://www.zdnet.com.au/ | archive

  18. Lederer, John, Discussion regarding Microsoft Marketing Memo, American Bar Association, 28 Mar 2004.
    mail.abanet.org | archive

  19. Zeller, Tom, Jr., "Beware Your Trail of Digital Fingerprints," New York Times, 7 Nov 2005.
    http://www.nytimes.com/ | archive

  20. Jardin, Xeni, "P2P in the Legal Crosshairs," Wired News, 15 March 2004.
    Note: Skip to paragraph 5 to see why we listed this article.
    http://www.wired.com/ | archive

  21. Smith, Richard M., "Microsoft Word bytes Tony Blair in the butt," Computer Bytes Man Website, June 30, 2003.
    http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/blair.htm | archive

  22. McCarthy, Michael J. "Beware, 'Invisible Ink' Inside Computer Files May Reveal Your Secrets." Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed), Vol. 236, Issue 78 (October 20, 2000). p. A1.

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