GovernmentExecutive.com

Many times, information security problems aren't with the systems, but the people -- be they federal employees, contractors, or the managers who are supposed to monitor their work and keep higher-ups informed about potentially embarrassing incidents.

Such is the case the the news that three contract employees at the State Department poked through Barack Obama's passport files. Two of them were fired, and the other was disciplined, but didn't get canned.

The department's official position so far, expressed in a late-night conference call with reporters by spokesman Sean McCormack, is that this was merely a case of "imprudent curiosity." The department's inspector general will look into whether that's actually the case.

Obama's camp was quick to place blame on the Bush administration. "This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years," said campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

The incidents took place on Jan. 9, Feb. 21, and March 14. But McCormack said senior State Department leaders only became aware of them yesterday. Which begs the question: Contract employees were fired for improperly accessing sensitive records on a high-profile presidential candidate, and no one thought of reporting it to the top brass for, in one case, more than two months?

"I will fully acknowledge that this information should have been passed up the line," said Patrick F. Kennedy, State's undersecretary for management, at last night's briefing. "It was dealt with at the office level where the incidents occurred by the office-level supervisors, who took immediate steps when they saw this. ... We have a very, very sophisticated computer tracking system that looks out for and looks out over the use of the computer, and when it sees anything that is potentially inappropriate, the computer calls it to the attention of the working-level supervisor. The system worked; it was called to their attention. They acted and -- but I will admit, they failed to pass the information up the chain to a sufficiently high level."