- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,378
US National Public Radio (NPR) reports today that BP's Gulf oil spill woes - which already include paying out compensation amounting to a whopping $4,000,000,000 - have been worsened by a data spill.
Ironically, the lost data includes personally identifiable information (PII) about some 13,000 oil spill compensation claimants.
NPR reports that names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers - a key aspect of personal identity in the USA - were amongst the data lost.
The sobering part of this regrettable incident is that it happened because a single laptop was lost or stolen "during routine business travel". And laptops are easy to lose - back in 2008, we wrote about a survey which found that 12,000 laptops are lost every week at US airports alone.
More details - link
Ironically, the lost data includes personally identifiable information (PII) about some 13,000 oil spill compensation claimants.
NPR reports that names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers - a key aspect of personal identity in the USA - were amongst the data lost.
The sobering part of this regrettable incident is that it happened because a single laptop was lost or stolen "during routine business travel". And laptops are easy to lose - back in 2008, we wrote about a survey which found that 12,000 laptops are lost every week at US airports alone.
More details - link
