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Laptop Stolen with Personal Data Of Chicago Employees

Posted on Sep 1, 2006 by Tom Fragala

A laptop was stolen from a City of Chicago contractor with sensitive personnel information. There is a simple way, using the Internet, to lock down the data on and track these laptops after they are stolen. This needs to be put into widespread use, like anti-virus and firewall software. More on that in a future post.

WBBM reports on this notebook computer theft:

Thousands of city employees could be at risk of identity theft following the theft of a laptop computer from a city contractor, and a delay of more than a year in reporting the theft to the proper personnel within the company, according to a release from the Mayor’s office.

Nationwide Retirement Solutions, the provider of deferred compensation services for City of Chicago employees has notified the city that a laptop computer containing personal information about customers was stolen from the home of one of its employees, according to the release.

Update: This situation is remarkable. The theft happened in April of 2005 but wasn’t reported to the right people and made public until July 2006. And the company involved actually said this (my emphasis):

However, the firm believes the risk of identity theft or misuse of the information is low, because the computer was protected by User ID and a complicated password, the release said.

Oh, so there was a complicated password. No problem then! Are they joking?