Laptop Computer Security

Tag archive for ‘PII’

Rip of the Week: Thrivent Financial Suffers Mysterious Data Breach

A somewhat curious, and rather terse, laptop theft is this week’s Rip. Thanks to kirniki over at DataLossDB for the tip, National Underwriter reports that Thrivent Financial experienced a break-in at an office in Pennsylvania. A laptop was stolen, which contained personal information, including names, addresses, Social Security Numbers and health information.
But what is curious [...]

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Posts “The Mega-Breach” Site

There’s a new list in town, and it’s one of “those” kinds of lists. The kind nobody wants to appear on. It’s similar to being on Santa Claus’ naughty list, only in this case inclusion could mean millions of dollars in fines for a business responsible for breaching personal health information (PHI).
The days of “a [...]

Rip of the Week: Al Gore’s Daughter, and 250,000 Others, Breached by National Archives

A quarter-million people were put at risk by the National Archives and Record Administration, when an unencrypted hard drive “disappeared” nearly a year ago.
Fox News reports on the RollCall.com article (thanks to lyger for the tip). Apparently, the hard drive had been sent to NARA during the Clinton administration and contained Personally Identifying Information (PII), [...]

Rip of the Week: Thief Steals Safe Containing “Thousands” of SSNs from Goodwill

So much for charity and goodwill. A particularly vicious thief broke into a Goodwill location in Michigan and made off with a safe. The problem was, instead of a safe full of cash, he got a safe full of backup tapes containing Personally Identifying Information, including names, birth dates, and Social Security Numbers, of thousands [...]

It’s Been a Bad Year of Data Breaches

It’s Been a Bad Year of Data Breaches

As the year draws to a close, it’s handy to take a look back at a year’s worth of trouble. As expected, the headlines just kept flowing, with lost devices leading the charge. The steady flow of data into the wrong hands seemed to pick up momentum this year, as always.
For a recap of this [...]

Rip of the Week: 2,246 Madoff Victims Now Hit Again…By Laptop Theft

This week’s Rip of the Week was a bit of a shocker. Not only is the story a markedly sad one, but an usual personal twist caused me a double-take.
Newsday.com reports on the theft of 2,246 Bernie Madoff victims’ PII thanks to an unsecured laptop computer belonging to AlixPartners LLP, the consulting firm that had [...]

Rip of the Week: 12 Cal State U Laptops Stolen, Hundreds Now at Risk

This time, no less than a dozen unencrypted laptops (plus two desktops) were stolen from a research program at Cal State Los Angeles. CBS 2 reports that the theft occurred from the Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE) program on campus.
As a result, “hundreds” of former students and faculty members may be at risk for identity [...]

Rip of the Week: 109,000 More People Breached

Things just don’t change much. Yet another laptop theft report bears extreme similarity to…all of the other laptop theft reports.
This time, the BBC reports that a laptop containing a trove of Personally Identifying Information (PII) of members of six pension schemes in the UK was stolen from software company NorthgateArinso. The breach victims include members [...]