[Dataloss] Theft of FTC Laptops Exposes Consumer Data

[cracker at gmail.com]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/06/ftc_laptop_theft_exposes_consu.html

FTC Laptop Theft Exposes Consumer Data

The *Federal Trade Commission* -- an agency whose mission includes consumer
protection and occasionally involves suing companies for negligence in
protecting customer information -- today disclosed a recent theft of two
laptop computers containing personal and financial data on consumers.

In a statement, the FTC said two employee laptops were stolen from a locked
vehicle. The PCs contained data on about 110 people that was "gathered in
law enforcement investigations and included, variously, names, addresses,
Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and in some instances, financial
account numbers."

The commission said it has "no reason to believe the information on the
laptops, as opposed to the laptops themselves, was the target of the theft.
In addition, the stolen laptops were password protected and the personal
information was a very small part of several thousand files contained in one
of the laptops." The agency also said it would offer affected individuals
one year of free credit monitoring.

The FTC's loss is just the latest in a string of laptop
thefts<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/21/AR2006062101854.html>--
including several here in the Washington area -- that exposed
sensitive
information on millions of consumers. Last month, the U.S. *Department of
Veterans Affairs* reported that a stolen laptop and computer hard drive
taken from an employee's house in Montgomery County contained personal
information on 25.5 million veterans and military personnel. Social Security
numbers and the birthdates of 13,000 District workers and retirees were
among the data contained on a laptop stolen last week from the Southeast
Washington house of an employee of *ING U.S. Financial Services*....
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