A stolen laptop in Hardin County is causing some concern.
Lumberton Independent School District spokesperson Kathryne Colligan tells 12 News HD an employee’s laptop was taken from a car last week prompting the district to send out a notice to employees and students.
Colligan says although the district does not believe sensitive information was on the computer, the notice was issued as a precaution because there was a slight chance it could have been on the laptop.
Colligan says they have only received a couple of questions about the theft since the notice was sent out and no one has reported problems caused by the theft.
Source: KCENTV
How would a notification letter for this type of situation go? How do you tell people that you really don’t know whether any of their personal information was stolen, and if so, what information? Would they write:
Hi, everyone.
A laptop was stolen.
We’re not sure what was on it, but we don’t believe that that there was sensitive information on it. We encourage you to join with us in our belief .
If you don’t want to rely on faith, you might want to check your credit report for the next few years.
Of course, we don’t believe that you’ll have a problem and this is just out of an abundance of caution, but we want to reassure you that we will continue to take your privacy and security very very seriously.
Clearly, that is not their letter. But seriously, how can people protect themselves if they don’t even know if their data have been compromised? I know that there are many who say that in this day and age, it is reasonable – perhaps, necessary – to assume that your information has been compromised, and probably many times over – but custodians of data continue to be too careless.