News You Should Have Read Elsewhere

News You Should Have Read Elsewhere

by Carlo Longino





Unencrypted Laptop Data Behind Latest Data Leak

from the at-least-make-it-a-little-harder dept

Bank of America, no stranger to data leaks, says personal information of users of its Visa Buxx prepaid debit cards may have been compromised when a laptop -- containing the data in an unencrypted format -- was stolen. There seems to be an unofficial contest for the biggest data leak, but what about the dumbest? Unencrypted data on a laptop? It doesn't take a security expert to figure out that might not be a good idea. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of incentive for companies behind some of these leaks to really do anything significant to change their ways, while regulatory efforts seem to focused on punishment rather than prevention. The question of what constitutes reasonable protection is one that will come up time and time again in trying to assign blame (and liability) for these leaks. But it's a pretty safe bet that keeping unencrypted personal data on a laptop wouldn't be seen by too many people as reasonable.

9 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. No Subject Given

    by Anonymous Coward - Oct 7th, 2005 @ 2:45pm

    Why the fuck do they even have credit card info on a laptop. Surely they have five nines RAID servers to store important information like that.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. No Subject Given

    by STJ - Oct 7th, 2005 @ 3:32pm

    Um I'd say if you are with BOA, RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. No Subject Given

    by Chris - Oct 7th, 2005 @ 4:18pm

    Wow, now that is just very scary. I can understand an employeee downloading and saving customer data.. or giving out his/her passwords to someone else... but this just takes the cake. With encryption built into Windows 2000 and XP Pro there's no excuse for it to not have been encrypted.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Bank of america laptop stolen

    by bill - Oct 7th, 2005 @ 4:53pm

    i think it was all a trap. The laptop is a bomb, just waiting to explode. My guess is that bank of america has some enemies it wants ot get rid of, and an exploding laptop will be the perfect weapon. It is only a matter of time before those guys blow up in their cozy little beds

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. No Subject Given

    by Bill - Oct 7th, 2005 @ 5:00pm

    i WONDER IS YOU CAN SUE THEM FOR THIS. i MEAN, THERE PROBABLY IS A LAW THAT STATES "BANKS CANNOT PUT CREDIT CARD CRAP ON UNENCRYPTED LAPTOPS."

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Re: No Subject Given

    by Adam - Oct 7th, 2005 @ 5:09pm

    Way to not turn off caps lock. Now you sound like an idiot.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Re: No Subject Given

    by Anonymous Coward - Oct 7th, 2005 @ 5:20pm

    adam, you're a bitch

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Re: No Subject Given

    by Steve - Oct 8th, 2005 @ 3:05am

    Please tell me you take the "encryption" built into windows seriously?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Rule One

    by Anonymous of Course - Oct 8th, 2005 @ 8:13pm

    There is no security without physical security.
    How stupid do you have to be to put data like that on a laptop? Probably as stupid as you'd have to be to let data like that leave the locked limited access room it should be kept in. They can't be that stupid. What this means to me is the bank card people really don't care.
    -
    I hope some hungry dog lawyer eats BOA's shorts.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..
Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It