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Theft of FTC Laptops Exposes Consumer Data
From: cracker () gmail com
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 13:18:24 -0400
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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