Passport Security and the State Department
Mood:  cheeky
When it comes to the rules regarding the security of passports, rest assured that the State Department doesn't play games. In September a foreign service officer who was working at the State Department was arrested for illegally reading passport files. It seems that the former employee, looked through the files of about 200 people. He claimed that was due to idle curiosity.

However, even employees of the State Department are not privy to just viewing any passport file that they feel like. The rules are that these files are only supposed to be viewed when they are needed to be, meaning there needs to be a valid reason. This ex employee violated that. The State Department was on to this man, and a few other employees that were doing the same thing. They set up an investigation and discovered exactly what was going on.

It's good to know that the State Department takes this violation of security and privacy seriously. All of the people involved were charged and have pending legal action against them.