Lost Laptops – not the weakest link in identity theft
Created: 23 Oct 2009 | 1 comment
Stolen or lost laptops are the most common type of data breach. You read about these cases on a daily basis in the news. Why? It’s obvious to both employees and employers when laptops go missing and companies report the losses at a much higher rate than any other type of data breach. But there’s a public misperception that these missing machines translate into identity theft. The reality is that most laptops are fenced for their hardware value, not for the confidential information that might be found on the machine.
We’ve recently seen media coverage on the impact and cost of lost laptops – from a laptop that contained personal information about thousands of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme victims to a hospital that potentially compromised more than 30,000 of its pharmacy patients’ prescription records.
While organizations may not be able to stop the loss and theft of laptops, they can take steps to protect the data on their machines and ensure that they are not wasting resources on over-notification of breach victims.
Encryption. This should be obvious by now, but by encrypting laptops and removable media like external hard drives or USB drives, companies can protect the information when media is lost. Makes sense, right? You’d be surprised how many companies don’t take this step and pay the price down the road.
Backup. This may not be as obvious, but having a backup image of laptops can play a key role in assessing the level of and severity of breach even after the laptop has gone missing. Industry-leading Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions can scan backup images to help a company understand the extent of the breach by figuring out what was actually on the laptop. That way, breach notification can be targeted to those individuals whose information was actually compromised. We’ve seen cases where a scan of a backup image showed that there was no breach. Think of the money and reputation saved in that case.
Asset Management. This is something we often find missing. Companies don’t know what assets they have and where they are. A workflow for asset management can automate the corporate security processes associated with ensuring laptops or other assets are tracked and accounted for if they are lost or stolen.
Bottom line? Laptops don’t have to be a concern for your company if you take the right steps.
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Hacking
Identity theft isn’t only happening in Internet, as through voicemail hacking could be successfully done. As day goes by, hackers have becoming smarter on slashing consumers’ personal account. Malfeasant uses of SpoofCard have even been calls to pizza parlors and money lenders with bank accounts from hacked accounts. SpoofCard can be a great device for making prank calls, except that it has a little side effect of also being able to hack phone accounts. Malicious scum has been using this service to hack into other people's voicemail, and get access to their information – that's identity theft. It's happened to Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and as nauseating both of them might be, hacking their private information is beyond wrong.
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