The seemingly endless stream of data thefts continued as
aircraft giant Boeing Co. said that a company-owned laptop
containing the personally identifiable information of nearly
400,000 of its employees and former workers was stolen
recently.
According to published reports, the laptop was taken earlier
this month and contains the names, credit card information and
other sensitive data belonging to 382,000 Boeing workers and
retirees. This is the third such incident in the last year or so
for Boeing, based in Chicago.
Another computer containing information on about 160,000 company
employees was stolen in November 2005 and data on more than 3,500
workers was put at risk when a laptop containing the information
was taken in April of this year. After each of the earlier
incidents Boeing has notified the affected individuals and offered
help in enrolling in credit-watch services to detect any fraud
resulting from the data thefts.
Boeing is hardly the only organization to face such thefts in
recent months. Ameriprise Financial Inc., Kaiser Permanente,
UCLA, the University of California at
Berkeley and dozens of others have all had similar thefts
affecting tens of thousands of people. In fact, on Monday
Ameriprise agreed to hire a consultant to review the company's
security procedures for laptops as part of an agreement with the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts resulting from the theft of a
company laptop in January. The company also will pay $25,000 to
the state to cover costs of the investigation.