Auditing firm Ernst & Young has lost yet another laptop computer containing client details. This time thousands of IBM employees face the threat of identity theft.
According to The Register, the laptop was stolen from the car of an Ernst & Young employee in January 2006. The employee handled the tax accounts for IBM staff who have been stationed overseas at one time or another while working with the company. The names, dates of birth, genders, family sizes, social security numbers and tax identifiers for IBM employees on the computer have all been compromised.
Ernst & Young did not publicize the incident, though reporters have received a copy of an official letter (below) that the company sent out to notify all those affected about the information leak. Amazingly, the IBM employees were only informed about the incident two months after the laptop was stolen.
