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Shame on IBM!

Posted on May 18, 2007 by Michelle Pastor

IBM is one of the leaders in encryption software and other data management technologies so it’s very surprising that their retirees’ data has been compromised.  It happened when the human resources department’s back-up tapes were transported by a contractor from one facility to another on Feb 23^rd.  The computer tapes with employees’ social security numbers, birth dates and other personal information apparently fell out of the vehicle and have been missing ever since.

A spokesman said that some, but not all, of the tapes were encrypted.  The question is: why didn’t IBM protect their employees by using their own technology to encrypt the information on all of the tapes? 

Another thing that bothers me is that it took IBM about 2 months to notify the employees affected.  That’s not acceptable, especially if bank account numbers were included in the information that’s missing.  It can take a day to clean out a bank account.

IBM’s management messed up on 2 counts (not including the fact that they lost the tapes in the first place).  First they exposed their employees to a data breach that was completely avoidable by using their own technology to encrypt the information, and secondly, they waited way too long to let the employees know.

Read more about the incident in this news article.