Some Major Laptop Thefts
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In 2006 a laptop in custody of a data analyst was stolen. It contains personal and health data of about 26.5 million active duty troops and veterans. The agency has estimated that it will cost between $100 million to $500 million to prevent and cover possible losses from the data theft. In 2007 VA accepted to pay $20 million to current and former military personnel to settle a class action lawsuit.
In 2007 the Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined the UK’s largest building society, Nationwide £980,000 for inadequate procedures when an employees’ laptop was stolen during a domestic burglary. The laptop had details of 11 million customers’ names and account numbers and, whilst the device was password protected, the information was unencrypted. The FSA noted that the systems and controls fell short, given it took the Nationwide three weeks to take any steps to investigate the content on the missing laptop. The substantial fine was invoked to reinforce the FSA’s commitment to reducing financial crime.
In 2010 VA reported the theft of the laptop from an unidentified contractor; the computer contained personally identifiable information on 644 veterans, including data from some VA medical centers' records.
After learning about the unencrypted laptop, VA investigated how many VA contractors might not be complying with the encryption requirement and learned that 578 vendors had refused to sign new contract clauses that required them to encrypt veteran data on their computers, an apparent violation of rules.
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