TodayData too easily misplaced
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Article RatingThe downside of our plugged-in world was illustrated once again in a story in Saturday's Sentinel.
A vendor for Giant Food Stores who works on the company's pension plans checked his laptop computer into airline baggage, only to find it had either been lost or stolen on the trip. Stored on the computer was personal information for an undisclosed number of the company's retirees, including Social Security numbers, birth dates, benefit amounts and other administrative information.
That's enough information to get started on identity theft, assuming the computer fell into the hands of someone savvy enough to access the data. The computer itself had a log-in password, but the files were not protected or encrypted in any way.
Now it's possible the computer is simply lost and will eventually turn up. If stolen, the thief might not be computer-literate and will give up when asked to provide the log-in password. If the thief is computer-literate, he might simply erase the entire drive to obscure the computer's origins and make it easier to sell to an indiscriminate bargain hunter.
But it remains a possibility that the thief is practiced in data-mining strangers' computers and quickly discovers the bounty of information lurking on that laptop's hard drive.
Something similar happened several weeks ago in Maryland, when a burglar got into the home of a federal Veterans Affairs employee and made off with a computer and external hard drive containing many thousands of veterans' personal information. The employee had taken his work home with him, and his employers are still trying to determine the extent of the security breach.
And the Houston Chronicle reported last week that the personal information of Texans who apply for Medicaid, temporary assistance or the state's child health insurance plan was being faxed indiscriminately to a warehouse in Seattle that had no connection to the state of Texas. Even after the state was informed of the breach, employees of the Seattle firm told the Chronicle that the applications were still streaming off their fax machine.
These kinds of incidents aren't common, but even rare instances can expose the personal information of millions to unwanted scrutiny and possible theft.
Unfortunately, it's difficult to spread blame around in these cases, although whoever programmed the fax machines in Texas obviously has much to atone for.
These incidents remain a warning to individual citizens. It's not enough to be protective of your own critical information. You have to remain open to the possibility that important institutions that have your data might possibly mishandle it. That includes federal, state and local government, the folks who hold notes on your house and car, your health and pension plan administrators, the various companies who offer you charge accounts, and so on.
Under federal law, the three major credit information bureaus are required to provide individuals with one free credit report upon request. This is a useful thing to do even if you don't suspect fraud, since any inaccurate information on your credit report can cause problems when you want to buy a new car or home.
More to the point, a credit report can show you all the places where you've applied for credit recently -- or where someone has done so in your name. If you don't recognize some of them, a little research may be in order.
You can call Equifax at (800) 685-1111 or visit www.equifax.com; Experian at (888) 397-3742, www.experian.com; or TransUnion, (800) 888-4213, www.transunion.com. Be sure to tell whichever one you contact you're exercising your legal right to a free credit report.
