MyLaptopGPS

You’ll always do better at Bill Dube, unless you’re one of more than 10,000 customers who purchased or had a vehicle serviced there any time before this past summer.

According to an article in the Union Leader, personal information from thousands of New Hampshire and Massachusetts residents has been compromised, located on a stolen data backup tape at the Bill Dube Ford/Toyota dealership in Dover, NH.

Although the missing data was discovered in early August, affected customers were notified in a letter dated December 5, 2008. The data included names, addresses, Social Security numbers and driver’s license information. Attorney for Bill Dube, Scott Silverman, assures that despite the other information stolen, credit card numbers and financial data were not stored on the tape.

Which is a real relief, if you’re only concerned about your credit cards.

You’re identity, though, might be in serious jeopardy. Thank you, Mr. Silverman, for clearing that one up for us.

Dover Police Lt. David Terlemezian said, “The investigation is active; we haven’t developed evidence against any particular person at this point. Exactly what happened and how it happened isn’t entirely clear.” Thankfully, he also assured that so far none of the information on the tape has been used to steal anyone’s identity.

Silverman reassures, “The dealership executives feel very strongly that whoever did this, the intent was to give them a hard time.”

Well, now that we’ve got all the formalities out of the way, why don’t we assess the situation? A single tape was stolen from the dealership. It was located in a secure storage room that few people even knew about. The tape contained Social Security numbers, addresses, and drivers license numbers. Now, what kind of thief steal a single item, like a backup tape, from a secret storage room, without knowledge that the tape might contain sensitive data? Surely just one who is trying to give Bill Dube and his associates the run-around.

Let’s be a little more realistic, guys. There is sensitive data out there, waiting to be accessed, and thousands of identities could be compromised. This hardly strikes me as a theft of opportunity.

According to an article in the Connecticut Post, there has not been a single case of identity theft linked to the August laptop theft from a state employee’s vehicle.

The laptop contained the names and Social Security numbers of more than 106,000 Connecticut residents, including many high profile state officials. After the theft, weeks of public incrimination and finger-pointing brought the crime into the public eye.

Public officials reassure that the information stored on the laptop has not been used, however they can’t promise that the computer still exists or that the information remains on the hard drive.

What sparks my interest is that a laptop under such public scrutiny would very likely fly under the radar for a long time. After all, if you think like a thief, and you’re wanting to use this information for identity theft, AND it’s likely that everyone affected by the theft has an at least temporary freeze on their credit, you’re not going to want to jump the gun too soon.

There’s a chance that the laptop was disassembled and sold for parts. But there’s an equally likely chance that the laptop is somewhere in the data cobwebs, lying in wait until the information can be used to its full potential.

Seriously, though. If we weren’t so busy pointing fingers, someone might have stumbled upon MyLaptopGPS. And then we wouldn’t be mumbling and grumbling 15 months after some obscure laptop theft, because the information could have been recovered immediately.

Oregon Health and Science University reported a laptop theft earlier this week. Apparently an employee, who traveled to Chicago, had left the laptop unprotected in a hotel room. As it was easily accessible, the laptop was stolen.

Now OHSU is mailing about 890 patients, whose information was stored on the laptop, detailing the theft. Jim Newman, the OHSU media contact, remarked, “The laptop was password-protected, and officials are unsure how much patient information was left undeleted on the hard drive” (as written in Peter Korn’s article at The Outlook Online). He also noted that the laptop did not contain Social Security numbers, diagnoses or treatments for any of the patients.

However, the laptop did contain patient names, telephone numbers, birth dates, medical diagnoses and treatment categories.

The laptop was password protected, and OHSU officials agree that the information stored on the laptop would not be enough for the theft of any patients identities. However, the information could be used to call OHSU and retrieve further information on a patient. In preparation, the hospital has flagged all of the names, so if a call is made regarding any of the approximately 890 patients, it will be monitored and authenticated.

OHSU officials noted that this theft was not targeted, in their opinions, because another laptop and other personal items were also stolen. Newman suggested that the hard drives were probably wiped clean and sold for profit.

Though Newman seems optimistic, the entire situation would definitely put my back up. Had OHSU been prepared with technology like MyLaptopGPS laptop tracking, all 890 patients could rest easy tonight knowing exactly where their information was.

About 107,400 patients of Baylor Heath Care System, a Dallas-based system of hospitals and outpatient centers, are being notified of a recent laptop theft.

According to Jaikumar Vijayan’s article in Computerworld Security, approximately 7,400 patients’ Social Security numbers were stored on the laptop, along with data on an additional 100,000 people whose information did not include SSNs. The additional 100,000 people’s records contained a “limited amount” of health information, Baylor said in a statement issued November 4, 2008.

The first irony of this theft is that it occurred in mid-September. Yes, two months ago, a laptop was stolen, and no one was notified until about a week ago.

Second, the theft occurred on the cusp of the installation of new encryption technology and laptop-tracking technology.

Third, the entire situation could have been avoided had someone from Baylor been cluing into this blog about two months ago, and realized the simplicity of MyLaptopGPS’s laptop tracking system.

Instead, over 107,400 people are monitoring their credit reports and crossing their fingers that none of their sensitive data is in the wrong hands.

After the GOP Laptop Theft a few weeks ago (see the entry here), everyone should have tuned in to the election (well, you should have done that anyway) and paid special attention to Missouri.

And if you had your eye on Missouri, you might not have noticed the little blip in Charlottesville, Virginia. As reported by Henry Graff at NBC29, two laptops were stolen sometime in the middle of the night on Tuesday, after the polls had closed but before a team came to retrieve the laptops.

Combined, the laptops contained Voter Registration information for everyone registered in the city of Charlottesville. They contained names, addresses, dates of birth, and DMV identification numbers of everyone in the system.

The head of the electoral board in Charlottesville explained to NBC29 that it’s “standard protocol” to leave election equipment behind overnight. Generally, a team comes to collect the equipment the next morning.

The cinder block through the window of the Tonsler Park Polling Station beat them to it, it seems.

The vendor supplying the polling software claims to have run all 25,000 names registered and none of the names were paired with Social Security numbers. Still, the laptops remain lost, and Crime Stoppers had opened a hot-line for anyone with information on the break-in.

MyLaptopGPS, anti-theft software, and even simple security measures like laptop locks could have prevented this theft.