American Airlines hard drive stolen
A hard drive containing the personal information of tens of thousands of current and former employees of American Airlines recently was stolen from the company's Fort Worth, Texas headquarters.How many victims? 79,000.
What type of personal information? Names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and a "limited amount" of bank account information. Additionally, some health insurance information may have also been included — mostly enrollment forms, but also details about coverage, treatment, and other administrative information.
Details: The stolen hard drive contained images of microfilm files that contained the sensitive information. Some of the employee files also contained information on beneficiaries and dependents. The data spans a period from 1960 to 1995.
What was the response? Affected individuals have been notified and offered one year of free credit monitoring services. Additionally, the airline has increased security at its headquarters, including testing its computers for vulnerabilities. An investigation into the incident is currently ongoing.
Source: cbs11tv.com, “American Air Parent Claims Worker Data Compromised,” July 2, 2010.
