More Laptops Stolen Containing Sensitive Data

A laptop computer containing the Social Security numbers and other personal data of 13,000 Washington, DC employees was stolen Monday. The laptop was taken from the home of an ING US Financial Services’ employee. ING Financial Services manages Washington DC’s retirement plan.

The company did not notify city employees of the theft until late Friday 😯 because it took officials several days to determine what information was stored on the laptop AND they then confirmed that the the laptop was not password-protected and the data was not encrypted.

Two other ING laptops containing information on 8,500 Florida hospital workers were stolen in December and THOSE employees were not notified until this week 😯 , said ING spokesman Chuck Eudy. Neither laptop was encrypted, he said.

On May 23, we posted a story about the VA losing 26 million Social Security numbers when a laptop was stolen. Stories like this should make our skin crawl.

I hope you don’t have any financials with a company this lax. If you do have financials with them, I hope you are getting a SUPER return on your money.

ING US Financial Services web site: http://www.ing-usa.com/us/index.htm