Loren Steffy

A business blog

More personal data lost on a laptop

AP file photo

Why does this keep happening? The latest laptop data theft involves Houston-based Administaff. The company is warning 159,000 current and former employees that a laptop containing personal data, including their Social Security numbers, is missing.

My colleague L.M. Sixel chronicled the details of yet another company experiencing yet another Bank of America moment:

An employee had taken the computer home and stopped to go grocery shopping, said Richard Rawson, Administaff’s president. The next day — on Oct. 3 — the laptop was no longer in his car.

The laptop is password-protected, but the personal information was not saved in an encrypted location, which is a “clear violation” of company policies, according to an Administaff announcement.

How about a new policy? How about any employee putting confidential data on a laptop gets fired? Why is this so hard for companies to understand? How many more times is this going to happen?

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Categories: Data security