Visa papers in US bin, India culprit

Visa applications and sensitive documents of executives were found lying in an open yard in San Francisco.

Visa applications and other sensitive documents of top executives and political figures were found lying in an open yard at a San Francisco recycling centre after they were dumped there by the city's Indian consulate, according to media reports.

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Security experts said that the documents were a potential treasure trove for identity thieves or terrorists.

Among the papers found lying were visa applications submitted by Byron Pollitt, chief financial officer of San Francisco's Gap Inc, and Anne Gust, wife of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Also visa applications of top executives of AT&T Wireless Inc, Oracle Corp, Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp, Qualcomm Inc and Williams-Sonoma Inc were found lying.

Information on the documents includes applicants' names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, professions, employers, passport numbers photos and also accompanying letters detail people's travel plans and reasons for visiting India.

"This is absolutely sensitive information," said Charles Cresson Wood, an information-security consultant. "It needs to be safeguarded," he added.

When contacted, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Navtej Sarna said "the San Fransisco consulate is taking all necessary steps to ensure that all papers are shredded before they leave the consulate in future."

BS Prakash, the Indian consul general, said: "As we see it, the documents are not confidential. We would see something as confidential if it has a social security number or a credit card number, not a passport number."

Security experts said it wouldn't be hard to obtain someone's social security number using the information available in the consular documents.

"We have a shortage of space. We keep this material for a year, and then we have to destroy it," Pratik Sircar, deputy consul-general for the Indian consulate, said.

However, the consulate didn't destroy the documents. Instead, it hired a hauling company in December to cart the boxes to the recycling centre.