The theft of two laptops will cost about a million dollars to provide subsequent identity theft protection. Over three hundred thousand social security numbers were compromised:

“…Debix says that 25 percent to 35 percent of victims of this type of breach typically request this service. With the city paying Debix just under $10 per account, the price tag for the laptop theft is expected to be in the $1 million range.”

link: Nashville laptop theft may cost $1 million

The costs would increase if more than the estimated number of people use the identity theft protection. It is incomprehensible why sensitive data on a laptop are not encrypted. It is not difficult to use encryption to add a layer of security. In this case, the data were not encrypted. And that is such a cavalier handling of confidential, sensitive data.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: laptop, data breach, privacy, security, identity theft, protection, encryption