Since 2001, the FTC has filed charges against 25 businesses for failure to protect consumers’ information. The cases were cited in their May 5th testimony and comments (pdf) in Congress about two bills being considered: H.R. 2221, the Data Accountability and Protection Act, and H.R. 1319, the Informed P2P User Act. The cases fall into…
Category: Breach Incidents
UK: Baby records theft sparks inquiry
From the BBC: An inquiry is under way after the records of babies born in Aberdeen Maternity Hospital were handed in after apparently being stolen. Letters of apology have been sent to 175 parents after the records of their babies born between 2001 and 2008 were given to NHS Grampian. The documents appeared to have…
Deja vu all over again: Another Continental Airlines laptop stolen
Continental Airlines, which reported a laptop stolen from their Newark office earlier this year found themselves again in the unenviable position of notifying employees of yet a second stolen laptop. On March 30, a laptop was stolen that contained employee information such as name, Social Security number, Continental ID number, position title, and contact address….
TN: Improper records disposal leads to notification of clients
State Farm Insurance reported (pdf) that when they discovered that an employee of a Tennessee agent had improperly disposed of trash containing customer information, they decided to notify all customers of the Tennessee agent. They report that as a consequence of the incident, the agent changed their procedures to use a secured waste container in…
Godwin Pumps of America employee data on stolen laptop
On March 4, a laptop containing personal information on about 180 employees of Godwin Pumps of America was stolen in Cobb County, Georgia. According to the notification (pdf) sent by the firm’s lawyers, information on the password-protected laptop contained the employees’ names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. There was no indication of…
Lost laptop contained Penton Media customer credit card data
On March 16, a Penton Media employee lost a laptop and case containing some customer credit card information in hard copy and electronic form. The laptop was password-protected but the electronic files were not encrypted. The files contained customers’ names, credit card numbers, and credit card expiration dates of 54 customers who attended an IWCE…