A laptop with personal information about almost 200,000
current and former Hewlett-Packard employees has been stolen,
igniting another US identity fraud threat.
The laptop belonged to Fidelity Investments, which provides
financial services to Hewlett-Packard. It was being used by several
Fidelity employees in an off-site location, said Fidelity.
The data covers 196,000 current and former employees, and
includes their names and addresses, social security numbers, dates
of birth and employment-related information.
This is the latest data theft incident to hit corporate America.
Last month, McAfee reported that an external auditor lost a CD with
information about thousands of current and former McAfee employees.
The auditor left the CD on an aeroplane.
Fidelity has reported the theft to law enforcement agencies and
the matter is now under investigation.
Hewlett-Packard and Fidelity have already started notifying
affected individuals about the theft, and Fidelity is offering the
Hewlett-Packard staff a free credit-monitoring service for a year
to help counter any fraud attempts using their data.