TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Still Another Laptop With Lots of Personal Data Stolen


Still Another Laptop With Lots of Personal Data Stolen


Associated Press News Wire (ap@telecom-digest.org<)
Sun, 18 Jun 2006 18:13:30 -0500

Laptop with D.C. workers' data stolen

A laptop containing the Social Security numbers, salaries and other
personal data of 13,000 District of Columbia employees and retirees
has been stolen, officials said.

The computer was stolen Monday from the Washington home of an employee
of ING U.S. Financial Services, said officials with the company, which
administers the district's retirement plan.

The company did not notify city employees of the theft until late
Friday because it took officials several days to determine what
information was stored on the laptop, ING spokeswoman Caroline
Campbell said.

The laptop was not password-protected and the data was not encrypted,
Campbell said.

The company said it was working with district police and had hired a
private investigator. Police would not confirm the theft Saturday.

City officials said they were disturbed about how the data was stored
and that the company waited to report the theft.

"We are concerned that this information was being managed without
protection," said Mary Ann Young, spokeswoman for the city's chief
financial officer.

She said the district expects details about the incident from ING this
week.

The company has sent letters to all affected employees warning them of
the possibility of identity theft. ING also will set up and pay for a
year of credit monitoring and identity fraud protection, Campbell
said.

"For us, this is very unfortunate," she said. "But we're moving
forward, we're very focused and committed to find any other laptops
that don't have encryption software and to fix that. This incident
revealed a gap."

Two other ING laptops containing information on 8,500 Florida hospital
workers were stolen in December, but the employees were not notified
until this week, said ING spokesman Chuck Eudy. Neither laptop was
encrypted, he said.

On the Net:

ING Financial Services: http://www.ing-usa.com/us/index.htm
District of Columbia Retirement Board: http://www.dcrb.dc.gov/dcrb/site/

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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