RSSStolen PCs spur ID theft worries at Stanford, U. of SC, AT&T
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published June 9, 2008, 12:37 PM
In a wave of apparently unrelated PC thefts, workers at Stanford University, the University of South Carolina (USC), and AT&T have been warned by their respective employers that their personal data might have been compromised.
A laptop stolen from Stanford contained the personnel records of 72,000 current and past employees, all hired before September of 2007, according to information posted on Stanford's Web site.
"I'm extremely disappointed to let you know that a Stanford laptop, which contained confidential personnel information, was recently stolen. The matter has been reported to law enforcement," said Randy Livingston, the university's VP for business affairs and CFO, in a letter sent out on June 6 to the "Stanford Community."
The missing Stanford laptop contained information such as social security number, salary, birth date, home address, work and home phone numbers, business title, office location, Stanford ID card number, and Stanford employee number, says a Q&A on the Stanford site.
However, the data on the laptop did not include driver's license numbers or financial information such as credit card and bank account numbers.
As students at USC have been notified, the PC stolen at USC -- a desktop model belonging to Deputy Dean Scott Koerwer -- disappeared along with several other items over Memorial Day Weekend from an office in the Moore School of Business.
The purloined desktop PC contained undisclosed types of personal information on 130 faculty and staff as well as on some 7,000 students who took courses at the school over the last academic year.
In a letter dated June 6, Koerwer suggested some steps that those affected might take to protect themselves from identity theft.
AT&T has not disclosed the number of employees impacted by the loss of a laptop from a vehicle during May.
"[But] the measures and precautions we put in place to protect the security of company-owned property and our employees' personal information were not followed," AT&T admitted, in a letter to workers.
The AT&T laptop -- which contained names, Social Security numbers, and salary information on management and other staff -- reportedly had no encryption or other security protection in place beyond a password lock.
Iron Mountain has Connected vaulting solutions to back up pc-laptop data as well as a data defense mechanism which would wipe the hard drive clean in the event someone made 10 unsuccessful attempts to log in. Kinda of a no brainer considering the low cost of off site effortless back ups and protection.... www.ironmountain.com
Jacqueline Ellman, Data Protection Rep Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, CA
jacqueline.ellman@ironmountain.com
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How about we just pass a law (or companies implement a plan) whereby storing data such as Social Security numbers on a laptop is not permitted?
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With broadband, wifi, and VPN software where is the need to store personal info like this locally anymore? Either on a desktop OR laptop?
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i think this is the 1000th stolen laptop i heard about... incidents like this happen because people don't take security measures... why do they store private information on laptops? haven't they heard about dedicated servers for that?? or something like a desktop PC that you keep only at the office?? all the firewalls and protection programs are useless if people don't care about security...
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That's why they sell these laptops with locks.
And yes, it should be just like a car.. if you leave your keys unattended in the ignition it's a misdemeanor. At least in my state.
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