Notebook theft could expose personal data
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A notebook PC containing the personal information of thousands of blood donors was stolen from a blood bank in California last Friday, exposing those donors to the possibility of identify theft.
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Police investigate the theft of a laptop from a Royal Navy officer which had personal details of 600,000 people.
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InfoWorld - The theft of a laptop containing Social Security numbers of Nashville, Tenn.-area voters is expected to cost local officials about $1 million as they roll out identity-theft protection to those affected.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Commerce Department reported that 1,137 laptops have been lost or stolen since 2001, with 249 of them containing some degree of personal data. The department couldn't determine whose data may have been on the machines, of which 672 belonged to the Census Bureau. It wasn't aware of any data having being used improperly, it said Thursday. The findings are from a Commerce Department review covering 15 agencies that use a total of 30,000 laptops. It comes as businesses and governments try to tighten their control over mobile devices after several high-profile incidents concerning theÂ loss of sensitive data. The Census Bureau's laptops -- used for collecting census data in the field -- rarely contain data on more than 100 households, and the data can't be accessed by the surveyors, many of whom are temporary, hourly employees. the department said. However, the Census Bureau also lost 15 handheld computers used to gather survey data. As a result, the department is contacting 558 households. The risk of the data being misused was "extremely low," it said, since the data is encrypted and two passwords are required for access. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which falls under the Commerce Department, lost 325 laptops, three of which had personal data. One of the laptops was stolen after a fire at one of its buildings in Seattle, Washington. The machine contained addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers for 146 employees, the department said. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said the agency plans toÂ strengthen accountability standards, encrypt data on all department laptops and implement two-factor authentication. U.S. government agencies have been stung by hardware losses in recent months. In May, aÂ laptop and external hard drive was stolenÂ from the home of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employee containingÂ data on 26.5 million veteransÂ and active-duty military personnel. The laptop was recovered, and two teenagers were arrested in June. Â
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By STEPHEN MAJORS  COLUMBUS, Ohio - A data storage device with the Social Security numbers and other personal information on all 64,000 Ohio state employees was stolen from a state intern's car last weekend, Gov. Ted Strickland said Friday.
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Days after getting busted for attempting to get tech support on a printer he allegedly stole in an incident believed to have exposed the personal info of 500 driver's-license applicants, the Missouri man may have had his personal data inadvertently exposed in a data breach. Timothy Scott Short was previously a suspect in an ID-theft incident.
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LOS ANGELES -- California university officials have warned nearly 600,000 students and faculty that they might be exposed to identity theft following incidents where computer hard drives loaded with their private information were lost or hacked into.
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A customer filed a $54 million lawsuit against Best Buy for losing an $1100 laptop she took in for service. The reason, exposure to identity theft.  It's about time vendors were forced to recognize the value of customers' data. I recall how the chief genius at the Apple store in Emeryville complained that they would have to eat the cost of the drive in a deal they made with the manufacturer. Someday they'll have a clue that the data on most drives is worth far more than the hardware, and that their potential liability, if the data ends up in the hands of an identity thief, is also much greater.
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The FBI said that 160 laptop computers were lost or stolen in less than four years, including at least 10 that contained sensitive or classified information -- one of which held "personal identifying information on FBI personnel," according to a report released yesterday.
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The loss or theft of personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers soared to unprecedented levels in 2007, and the trend isn't expected to turn around anytime soon as hackers stay a step ahead of security and laptops disappear with sensitive information.
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For Boeing, laptop thefts are beginning to become somewhat of an epidemic. For the third time in 13 months, one of the company's notebook computers has gone missing, this one containing the names and social security numbers of about 382,000 workers and retirees.
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R. James Nicholsonâs term was marked by the theft of a laptop computer that compromised the personal information of tens of millions of people.
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The Veterans Affairs worker faulted for losing veterans&#039; personal information had permission to access millions of Social Security numbers on a laptop from home, agency documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
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The defence secretary tells MPs two other Ministry of Defence laptops with personal data on have been stolen.
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A laptop containing confidential information linked to the inquiry into the murder of loyalist Billy Wright, is stolen.
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Data about 106,000 state taxpayers was exposed in the theft of a notebook.
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Newspaper report says People's Liberation Army broke into computers and stole files.