A laptop containing sensitive and unencrypted personal data on 51,000 current and former employees of Agilent Technologies was stolen from the car of an Agilent vendor March 1 in San Francisco, the company said in a letter mailed to former employees this week.
The data includes employee names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and details of stock options and other stock-related awards.
In the letter, Agilent blamed the San Jose vendor, Stock & Option Solutions, for failing to scramble or otherwise safeguard the data - "in violation of the contracted agreement."
"It wasn't encrypted, which was a surprise to us," said Agilent spokeswoman Amy Flores. She said the vendor told Agilent that an East Coast employee had brought the data-laden laptop to California for encryption, but someone broke into her car and stole the computer and her other belongings while the vehicle was parked near Fisherman's Wharf.
Flores said Agilent, a Santa Clara maker of test and measurement equipment, has no evidence that the lost data has been used to steal anyone's identity. However, Agilent is offering affected employees one free year of credit monitoring from Equifax.
Ironically, Stock & Option Solutions was hired to make sure that money management firm Smith Barney had properly transferred employee stock data to a new management firm, Fidelity Investments, which had been hired to administer Agilent's stock programs.
Pam Van Gordon, chief operating officer of the company, didn't respond to a phone message or an e-mail Friday evening.
Matt O'Brien of Milpitas, a former research manager at Agilent who left in 2001, said he was "disgusted" when he received notice of the theft in his Friday mail.
He immediately recalled the 2006 theft of a Fidelity laptop containing personal data on 196,000 current and former HP employees. Agilent was spun off from HP in 1999.
Agilent should have learned from HP's mistake, said O'Brien. "Agilent should have put all of the data into an encrypted format to begin with."