A laptop containing sensitive information about 200,000 current and former HP employees was stolen last week, putting all of them at risk of losing their accounts or having their identities exploited in fraudulent schemes.
The stolen laptop belonged to Fidelity Investments, a company that provides services for HP. Inside it was sensitive data of 196,000 HP employees and former employees, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birthdates, and more. The only saving grace is that it did not contain the authentication code required by Fidelity to access its services.
This incident marks the latest in a series of personal data thefts witnessed over the past 13 months. More than 53 million personal records have fallen into the hands of outsiders following numerous incidents involving the theft of laptops or desktops containing this type of critical data. Just last month, security firm McAfee reported that a CD containing information on thousands of current and former employees had gone missing without a trace.
Fidelity has reported the theft to the police, and the incident is currently under investigation. There is no evidence yet to suggest that this personal information has been used for malicious purposes. Furthermore, accessing the data on the laptop requires a special application, which expired just days after the laptop disappeared. At that point, the data would not display normally and would be very difficult to read or use.
Despite HP’s efforts to reassure the public, incidents of identity theft like this have left users extremely anxious and worried. In 2005 alone, they reported over 255,000 identity theft cases to the FTC, accounting for more than one-third of all complaints filed.
This week, HP and Fidelity will begin confirming the identities of the specific 200,000 employees mentioned. In the meantime, Fidelity has tightened security for HP accounts and is offering the remaining employees a free credit monitoring service for one year.
Fidelity is regarded as one of the largest financial services providers in the world, serving 21 million customers globally.
Tian Yi
