Associated Press reports that a BP employee lost a laptop containing unencrypted personal information on approximately 13,000 people who had filed compensation claims prior to August 2010 stemming from the Gulf oil spill.
Read more on Quad-Cities Online. BP did not provide any details on the types of information for each claimant or any gap between the loss of the laptop and their discovery that it was lost. I’ve sent an inquiry to BP to try to get additional details as there is no press release on their web site, either.
Thanks to @jslarve for the heads-up on this one.
Update: NPR has a more complete version of the AP report that indicates that the laptop, which was lost on March 1, contained a spreadsheet of claimants’ names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses.
The employee lost the laptop on March 1 during “routine business travel,” said Thomas, who declined to elaborate on the circumstances.
“If it was stolen, we think it was a crime of opportunity, but it was initially lost,” Thomas said.
BP is offering to pay for claimants to have their credit monitored by Equifax, an Atlanta-based credit bureau.