The letter signed by Dorothy Attwood, Chief Privacy Officer for AT&T, was waiting for me when my wife and I returned from vacation. I didn’t like what it had to say:
“This letter is to advise you of a recent theft of a laptop computer containing legacy AT&T Corp … information … including … names, Social Security numbers, etc., etc.. Unfortunately, some of your personal information was contained in these files … this information could be fraudulently used to open or access your credit accounts.”
The laptop was stolen from an employee of a professional services firm doing work for AT&T. Although the letter did not specify the circumstances of the theft, a call placed to an AT&T representative advised me that the person had left his (her) laptop unattended in an automobile.
In 1969, AT&T Bell Labs gained fame within the industry for developing the reliable and super-secure UNIX® operating system for computers. That system, which has since grown and branched out, is still in use today. How is then, that the new AT&T would tolerate confidential information to be placed on a laptop not under the direct control of one of its employees, and for that laptop to take flight?
To its credit, AT&T provided information on how to help prevent private records from being used illegally. I quickly implemented each of those steps. I hope that it wasn’t too little, too late.
Next Blog Post: How you can protect your own identity from theft.
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