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November 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Starbucks spills 60K personal files
Joining an increasingly growing list of companies and governmental departments, Starbucks today revealed that its lost the private data files of some 60,000 current and former employees, according to reports.
The data, which includes employees names, addresses, and Social Security numbers, were on two of four laptops the company says it lost track of last September. The systems were discovered missing from a closet in the company's headquarters in Seattle.
"We have no reason to believe these laptops are in the hands of someone who wants to misuse them," said company spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil. "We just want to make every effort to protect our partners."
The company has alerted employees of the theft and potential risk of identity theft, and is offering free credit monitoring.
Stolen laptops seems to be a recurring theme in many of these data-leak incidents, and I can't help but wonder why so many companies keep such sensitive information -- unencrypted, no less -- on something as portable as a laptop.
Notably, Seagate recently announced a laptop with a encryption drive. Sounds like a step in the right direction.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 3, 2006 04:10 PM
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