[Dataloss] Red Cross laptop with donor information stolen

[Richard Forno]

Red Cross laptop with donor information stolen
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13657607/
Social Security numbers on computer, but officials say data is encrypted
The Associated Press

Updated: 3:01 p.m. ET July 1, 2006

DALLAS - A laptop containing personal information from thousands of blood
donors ‹ including Social Security numbers and medical information ‹ was
stolen from a local office of the American Red Cross, but officials said the
information was encrypted.

The data included matching names and birth dates of donors from Texas and
Oklahoma, as well as donors¹ sexual and disease histories.

³We haven¹t viewed this as a security breach at this point,² Darren Irby,
spokesman for the national American Red Cross office, told The Dallas
Morning News for its Saturday editions.

The laptop was one of three stolen from a locked closet in the Farmers
Branch office of the American Red Cross in May, but the two others did not
contain the personal information. There was no sign of forced entry, said
Red Cross spokeswoman Audrey Lundy.

Local officials alerted police and national Red Cross offices, Lundy said.
Donors were not notified about the missing information, and the Red Cross
had no legal obligation to do so.

The laptops disappeared on two separate occasions in May, according to
police reports. They could have been gone as long as a week before being
reported missing.

Gordon Bass, acting chief information security officer for the national Red
Cross, said supervisors have their own user names and passwords. Access is
time-and-date based, so information can be accessed only during blood drives
or when new information is uploaded to a central database.

The Farmers Branch Red Cross also lost a laptop with encrypted donor
information in June 2005, Lundy said, but she could provide no details on
circumstances of that incident or any follow-up investigation.

Security in the Farmers Branch office was tightened after the most recent
disappearances, Lundy said.

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published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13657607/