[ISN] Theft of Home Depot laptop puts 10,000 at risk

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Thu Oct 18 2007 - 22:08:59 PDT


http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/101707-theft-of-home-depot.html

By Cara Garretson
Network World
10/17/07

Home Depot on Wednesday confirmed a company laptop was stolen that 
contains personal information about approximately 10,000 employees of 
the do-it-yourself retailing giant.

Several weeks ago, a Home Depot human-resources representative in 
Massachusetts took a laptop computer home to do some additional work and 
had the PC stolen from his vehicle parked in front of his house, 
according to a company official. The notebook stored personal 
information, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 
roughly 10,000 employees, she says. The data was not encrypted, but the 
system was password protected, she adds.

Once Home Depot investigated the theft and determined which employees’ 
data was stored on the notebook, the company notified potential victims 
and is offering one year of credit monitoring for free, the official 
says.

“We have no reason to believe the data was the target of this theft,” 
says the official, adding that the company has received no evidence of 
identity theft as a result of the incident.

Home Depot is continuing to work with law enforcement on an 
investigation into the theft.

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