Another day, another laptop theft: Now, it's Connecticut's revenue agency
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A laptop containing data on 106,000 Connecticut taxpayers is missing, prompting that state's governor to order IT officials to implement new controls for protecting data by Sept. 7.
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A disk carrying the Social Security numbers and other personal information on all of the state's employee was stolen from a state worker's car last weekend, Gov. Ted Strickland said Friday.
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Company notifys employees that a stolen laptop contained AT&T Corp.'s benefits plans data.
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(InfoWorld) - Authorities have charged a 21 year-old Unisys Corp. subcontractor with stealing a desktop computer with billing information on as many as 38,000 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical patients. Khalil Abdulla-Raheem, of Washington, D.C., was charged Wednesday with theft of government property. He is the employee of an unnamed company that "provides temporary labor to Unisys," according to a statement released by the Veterans Affairs (VA) department's Office of Inspector General. The computer wasÂ stolen in late July from Unisys's Reston, Virginia, offices. It contained records on about 16,000 living patients who had received treatment at VA medical centers in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as information on another 2,000 who are deceased. Data on an additional 20,000 patients may have been stored on the computer, according to the VA. The VA said that these records may have contained Social Security numbers, addresses, and insurance information. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now analyzing the computer to determine whether this information has been compromised, but investigators do not believe that Abdulla-Raheem was after the VA data. This is the second ofÂ two major data breaches at the VA this year. In May, personal information on about 26.5 million veterans was compromised when a laptop and external hard drive were stolen from a VA analyst's home. Authorities haveÂ arrested two teenagers in connection with that theft and the FBI has concluded that the sensitive information was untouched. Still, the data in question was unencrypted in both of these incidents, and the VA, which has regularly scored failing grades in the Federal Government's annual computer security scorecard, has been blasted for its handling of the matter. The department's Inspector General published a report in July citingÂ policy failures and a lack of supervision in the May incident, and called for the VA to adopt a clear policy for safeguarding sensitive data. With data notification laws pushing data breaches into the public eye, PC encryption has become a priority for many IT departments. In fact, laptop encryption will top a list of the ten most important security trends for 2007, due to be released on October 1 by the SANS Institute, a computer security training organization. "Every major organization is moving forward to buy and deploy encryption products," said SANS Director of Research Alan Paller, in an e-mail note sent Thursday. "The reason is that top management is adamant about not facing personal embarrassment because of lost sensitive data." Abdulla-Raheem was released on bail Wednesday and is due back in federal court for a preliminary hearing on October 3. Unisys has offered a US$50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the PC. So far, nobody has come forward to claim the money, according to Lisa Meyer, a Unisys spokeswoman. Unisys had not encrypted the data on the stolen PC because this was not required by the VA, but the company is now taking a second look at this policy, Meyer said. "An event like this causes us to reexamine everything we're doing," she said. Â
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A laptop drive offered for sale as new on eBay turned out to have come from the laptop of an Arkansas Democratic Party official -- and still contained sensitive information when the buyer received it.
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Wells Fargo is informing some employees of a potential compromise of their personal data after the theft of a laptop at an auditing firm working for the company.
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A stolen laptop computer containing  sensitive information on more than 26 million U.S. military  veterans and service members has been recovered and a  preliminary review indicated no data was taken, the FBI and  Veterans Affairs Department said on Thursday.
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More than 1,100 laptop computers have vanished from the Department of Commerce since 2001, including nearly 250  from the Census Bureau containing  such personal information  as names, incomes and Social Security numbers, federal officials said yesterday.
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Time to call the credit bureaus? Almost 1.4 million records containing the personal information of Californians likely stolen.
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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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BURGLARS stole a laptop computer from a house in Plott Lane, Stretton-on-Dunsmore, on Thursday. Anyone offered a black Toshiba A30 computer is asked to phone PC Heidi Twynham on 01788 5 41111.  (c) 2007 Coventry Evening Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning.
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(InfoWorld) - Authorities have charged a 21 year-old Unisys Corp. subcontractor with stealing a desktop computer with billing information on as many as 38,000 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical patients. Khalil Abdulla-Raheem, of Washington, D.C., was charged Wednesday with theft of government property. He is the employee of an unnamed company that "provides temporary labor to Unisys," according to a statement released by the Veterans Affairs (VA) department's Office of Inspector General. The computer wasÂ stolen in late July from Unisys's Reston, Virginia, offices. It contained records on about 16,000 living patients who had received treatment at VA medical centers in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as information on another 2,000 who are deceased. Data on an additional 20,000 patients may have been stored on the computer, according to the VA. The VA said that these records may have contained Social Security numbers, addresses, and insurance information. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now analyzing the computer to determine whether this information has been compromised, but investigators do not believe that Abdulla-Raheem was after the VA data. This is the second ofÂ two major data breaches at the VA this year. In May, personal information on about 26.5 million veterans was compromised when a laptop and external hard drive were stolen from a VA analyst's home. Authorities haveÂ arrested two teenagers in connection with that theft and the FBI has concluded that the sensitive information was untouched. Still, the data in question was unencrypted in both of these incidents, and the VA, which has regularly scored failing grades in the Federal Government's annual computer security scorecard, has been blasted for its handling of the matter. The department's Inspector General published a report in July citingÂ policy failures and a lack of supervision in the May incident, and called for the VA to adopt a clear policy for safeguarding sensitive data. With data notification laws pushing data breaches into the public eye, PC encryption has become a priority for many IT departments. In fact, laptop encryption will top a list of the ten most important security trends for 2007, due to be released on October 1 by the SANS Institute, a computer security training organization. "Every major organization is moving forward to buy and deploy encryption products," said SANS Director of Research Alan Paller, in an e-mail note sent Thursday. "The reason is that top management is adamant about not facing personal embarrassment because of lost sensitive data." Abdulla-Raheem was released on bail Wednesday and is due back in federal court for a preliminary hearing on October 3. Unisys has offered a US$50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the PC. So far, nobody has come forward to claim the money, according to Lisa Meyer, a Unisys spokeswoman. Unisys had not encrypted the data on the stolen PC because this was not required by the VA, but the company is now taking a second look at this policy, Meyer said. "An event like this caused us to reexamine everything we're doing," she said. Â
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By The Porterville Recorder, Calif.  Mar. 10--Three juveniles are facing grand theft charges after admitting to stealing laptop computers from Pleasant View Elementary School.
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AT&T and a Maryland state agency have reported unrelated laptop thefts that may have exposed sensitive data about individuals.
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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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Personal information about Americans is stolen or lost from some government or private computer almost daily, but congressional auditors can link only a few identity thefts to the breaches.
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COMPUTERS and overhead projectors worth thousands have been stolen by thieves targeting schools across Lichfield.   In the latest break-in nine laptops worth pounds 7,500 were taken by burglars raiding Friary School, in Eastern Avenue.