Under the old system, Nebraska and most other states handled child support at the county level. But the counties generally could not share information and businesses faced the hassle of mailing checks to scores of offices. So federal law was changed to require states to install statewide computer systems.

Security breaches becoming more common
Similar security breaches have made news recently. The U.S. Agriculture Department said last week that a hacker broke into its computer system and may have obtained names, Social Security numbers and photos of 26,000 Washington-area employees and contractors.

Also, as many as 26.5 million people may have been affected by the theft of a laptop computer containing Veterans Affairs information including Social Security numbers and birth dates. The computer was taken from the home of a VA employee, and officials waited nearly three weeks before notifying veterans on May 22 of the theft.

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The government said Thursday the laptop with veterans' information had been recovered, and the FBI said there is no evidence that anyone accessed Social Security numbers and other data on the equipment.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department discovered that personal information for nearly 17,000 Medicare beneficiaries may have been compromised when an insurance company employee called up the data through a hotel computer and then failed to delete the file.

Social Security numbers and other information for nearly 1,500 people working for the National Nuclear Security Administration may have been compromised when a hacker gained entry to an Energy Department computer system last fall. Officials said June 12 they had learned only recently of the breach.

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