1) It can happen to anyone. 2) There is a way to avoid announcing the loss of data. 3) Thieves aren't impressed by your reputation.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070715033622186

Stolen laptops an open door to ID theft

Sunday, July 15 2007 @ 07:27 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

PogoWasRight.org Editor's note: as far as I can tell, the Securitas breach had not been previously reported...

Here's something scary: Millions of personal files on consumers are stored on laptop computers routinely left in areas accessible to thieves. Forget hackers who bypass sophisticated security systems. Identity thieves are simply walking off with laptops containing lots of juicy private and financial information.

.... In May, she received a letter from a former employer stating cryptically: "We are contacting you about a potential problem involving possible identity theft." The letter went on to say the stolen computers contained names, addresses and Social Security numbers on current and former employees. Ironically, the company, Securitas Security Services USA Inc., is one of the world's biggest security firms.

Once known as Pinkerton's — the detective agency that dogged Jesse James — the $6 billion company operates in 30 countries and has 200,000 employees. But on the night of April 26, apparently without detection, thieves slipped out of the company's West Coast operations center with "a number" of laptop computers.

... Securitas set up a hotline for employees. A spokesman said that more than 100,000 current and former employees got letters and that the company was also contacting credit bureaus.

"The investigation is still ongoing," the spokesman said.

Source - AZStar.net

Nothing to see here. Please move along.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070715031358528

Nonprofit staffer allegedly took computers

Sunday, July 15 2007 @ 07:25 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

An organization that's provided dental services to uninsured children since 1912 has fallen victim to theft from one of its own staff members, court documents allege.

Investigators wrote, in a search warrant, that Deborah Kelli Atkinson-Moller, the Denver facilities coordinator of Kids in Need of Dentistry (KIND) took computers, medical records and rugs [They must mean 'drugs' right? Bob] from offices and fled to California.

Denver police raided her Parker home July 6 and found 15 boxes of records belonging to KIND, computers, monitors, keyboards, patient records, two rugs belonging to KIND, two bongs with marijuana residue and one marijuana pipe, according to the warrant.

Source - Denver Post

This does seems to be happening, but is it the correct approach?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070715185946153

It's no secret: Facebook's allure is its privacy

Sunday, July 15 2007 @ 06:59 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Internet & Computers

The secret of Facebook's success, and its future viability, hinges on how the social network site protects privacy, taming the anything-goes intrusiveness of what might as well be known as the World Wild Web. Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said users want greater control over who sees their personal information, rather than expecting total privacy, or anonymity, the concept underlying much of the legal thinking on privacy for more than a century. "Privacy is beginning to transform from the classic 'right to be left alone' to this notion that 'I want control over my information,'" Kelly said in an interview on the sidelines of a Fortune Magazine technology conference held here last week.

Source - Reuters

The lady in charge says...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015450.html

July 15, 2007

Interview With FTC Chairwoman Includes Issues of Privacy and Fraud

sfgate.com - ON THE RECORD: DEBORAH MAJORAS CHAIRWOMAN, FTC: "She shares her thoughts on what her agency can -- and cannot -- do on everything from mergers to fraud to privacy to gas prices to infomercials," Sunday, July 15, 2007