I haven’t seen one of these “the data can’t be accessed without specialized software” reassurances in quite a while:
Mark Riley, Inc. dba E. K. and Company (“E. K. and Company”) is an accounting and payroll processing company. On January 19, 2015, E. K. and Company’s office was broken into and a hard drive was stolen. This hard drive may have contained data files that include your name, Social Security number, address, telephone number, and financial account information. While this information could not be accessed without the tax preparation software, which was not on the hard drive, we wanted to make you aware of this event out of an abundance of caution.
While we are not aware that any of the data on the hard drive has been accessed or misused in any way, we have arranged to have AllClear ID protect your identity and monitor your credit for 12 months at no cost to you.
As a result of the breach, E. and K. Company has invested in portable hard drives with encryption; the drives are stored off-site.
A copy of the full notification template is available on the California Attorney General’s web site.