Home Depot Loses Laptop With 10,000 Employee Records

A laptop containing personal data on about 10,000 Home Depot employees was stolen from the car of a regional manager in Massachusetts while it was parked in front of his home.

“The Home Depot takes data security seriously and works very diligently to protect its customers’ and associates’ privacy,” said Sarah Molinari, corporate communications manager for Home Depot. “We continually work to upgrade and improve our data security and privacy systems.”

While the password-protected computer contained no customer information, the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of the Home Depot employees may have been compromised. Home Depot is providing free credit-monitoring services to the exposed employees as a result.

Just another example of how companies - big and small - fail to protect their data. The manager violated policy. But why was he even allowed to even get that far? Did he have legitimate need for the data? Why was he allowed to keep a local copy of the data on his laptop? Why was he allowed to remove that data from the work location?

These foolish mishandling of sensitive data happen on a daily basis. Careless human beings are the primary source for exposing employee and consumer data to thieves.

Have you done the same? Or perhaps someone you work with? It might be long overdue to raise these questions at your office:

• What’s being done to ensure data security?
• Are strong policies are in place?
• Does everyone know/understand the procedures and policies?
• How will bad behavior be punished?

Related Links:

• Stolen Home Depot laptop exposes employee data
• More articles about careless organizations that allow data to be stolen…