A laptop stolen from a Deloitte & Touche employee contained the private details of 12,000 current and former Armstrong World Industries workers. Analysts at InfoWatch say the incident will be a blow to the image of the auditing firm and could affect its client base.
The laptop, which contained private records on 12,000 current and former Armstrong World Industries employees, was stolen from the locked car of a Deloitte & Touche employee, Armstrong announced in a letter dated July 20.
The laptop was stolen from a Deloitte & Touche employee who was auditing Armstrong’s payroll. The computer contained the names, addresses, telephone numbers, employee identification numbers and Social Security numbers for 12,000 people. There have also been conflicting reports as to whether the employees’ bank account details were on the stolen laptop.
As is often the case in such incidents, the data on the laptop was not encrypted, but only password-protected. An Armstrong representative has apologized for the incident and announced that Deloitte & Touche has promised to tighten up security for confidential data.
It has not been stated where the laptop was stolen. The letter sent out by Armstrong notes only that a police report was filed and the computer has not yet been recovered. The letter also suggests that all those affected put a three-month temporary fraud alert on their credit files. This is described as a temporary measure because the company intends to offer a two-year free credit monitoring service with Equifax. An Armstrong spokesman said the company would pay for the Equifax Credit Watch Gold program that costs $130 a year.
Armstrong has not yet made a decision as to whether the company will continue hiring Deloitte & Touche. It is possible that KPMG, which already audits Armstrong’s quarterly financial reports, could take over Deloitte & Touche’s work. Both Armstrong and Deloitte & Touche have refrained from making any comments to the press.
“This is obviously a very unpleasant incident for the auditing firm. These kinds of breaches can be very damaging to consulting firms’ reputations, which in turn affects the size of their client base. I hope Deloitte & Touche has learnt its lesson and will now take the appropriate measures to avoid any more breaches in future,” says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: Lancaster Online
