DATA THEFT–AT&T–Compass Health of Everett–Dominion Resources
Aug. 31, 2006 – Another day, more personal data thefts reported. Hackers broke into an AT&T computer network and stole credit card information and other personal information on some 19,000 customers. Meanwhile, Compass Health of Everett, Washington reported the June 2006 theft of a laptop computer containing Social Security Numbers and other personal data on mental health patients of Catholic Community Services and SeaMar. Portland, Maine company PortTix, which handles tickets for the city’s Merrill Auditorium, had its online ticketing system hacked, resulting in the compromise of credit card information on 2000 customers. Another hack of CUSO Mortgage Co. in Hampden, Maine last May resulted in the disclosure of personal data on 1,695 customers. Sovereign Bank reported that in early August three laptop computers containing personal data on “thousands” of customers were stolen from the cars of bank branch managers.
Also in early August, Dominion Resources reported the theft of two laptops containing the personal information on employees. Following similar thefts of commercial driver’s data from Department of Transportation officials in Florida, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported that a laptop containing the names, commercial driver’s license numbers, and dates of birth of 193 commercial drivers for 40 commercial carriers was stolen from an employee’s car in Baltimore. Drivers in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia and Washington, D.C. were affected. A laptop containing the names, Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, and policy information on 612 policy holders was stolen from the car of a Greenville, South Carolina agent for American Family Life Insurance Company (AFLAC). PSA Health Care reported the theft from an employee’s car of a laptop containing the Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, and health information on 51,000 past and current patients, including pediatric and respiratory care patients.
In the first survey of the thefts of laptops, already reported by WMR to be largely part of a covert U.S. intelligence agency operation to populate Total Information Awareness surveillance databases, a Ponemon Institute and Vontu Inc. survey reported that a whopping 81 percent of the companies surveyed reported the loss of one or more laptops containing personal data during the time frame Aug. 2005 to Aug. 2006.
Ed. note: WMR received an email from ADP about our Data Theft chart entry (July 2006) on a leak of stockholder information. ADP reports that Social Security Numbers were not contained in the affected computer files. The files contained investor names, addresses, and the number of shares of each company’s stock held in the person’s brokerage account.
