Unisys, Chevron, the US Department of Transportation, Williams-Sonoma and hospital firm HCA have all been affected by or reported data breaches in the last few days. Analysts at InfoWatch stress that data will continue to be compromised because businesses have not learnt from their mistakes.
First of all, Unisys was to blame for the latest breach of private data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. A computer with the personal details of 38,000 former servicemen simply disappeared. It was later reported that the breach took place at Unisys, which has now offered a reward of $50,000 for the computer.
Another data leak has affected Chevron after one of its laptop computers with employee Social Security numbers was lost on August 5. There have been no reports of how many people were affected, but, as in the VA case mentioned above, a subcontractor was to blame. The name of the independent accounting firm at the center of the incident has not been released.
The third incident took place at the US Department of Transportation. Reports earlier this month revealed that the DOT had lost a laptop containing the private details of 133,000 Florida residents. However, an earlier breach dating back to April has now come to light. In that incident a laptop with details of government contracts and grants was stolen.
The fourth breach hit the home-furnishing chain Williams-Sonoma. This time the laptop was stolen from the home of a Deloitte & Touche employee who was carrying out an annual audit of the chain’s financial statements. As is common in such incidents, the information on the computer was not encrypted, which means the thieves should find it fairly easy to access.
Finally, a fifth major breach was registered at a US office of HCA, a medical firm that provides services throughout the US and overseas. A gang of thieves broke into the office and stole 10 computers that contained a large amount of sensitive patient information.
“Yet another batch of data breaches and, as usual, poor information security policies and the lack of encryption on portable devices are to blame. Interestingly, it is not the first time that some of the organizations, such as Deloitte and the DOT, have appeared on this list. Do they really find it so difficult to learn from their mistakes?” Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch, commented on the incidents.
Source: ComputerWorld, SF Gate