Storage Security Breaches

Listed below are a number of storage security breaches that were featured in the news. Don't be the next headline. Secure your storage environment with encryption. Contact Us for more information on how to secure your backup tapes.

Tapes stolen containing patient info of 2.1 million
April 2008 – Computer tapes containing confidential information of 2.1 million University of Miami patients was stolen last month when thieves took a case out of a van used by a private off-site storage company, UM said Thursday morning

Tapes stolen containing bank account details on 37,000 customers and employees 
April 2008 – Personal details of 37,000 of customers and employees of Boots' dental plan have been stolen after a courier car was broken into.

HSBC loses customers' data disc
April 2008 – The HSBC banking group has admitted losing a computer disc with the details of 370,000 customers. The disc was lost four weeks ago after being sent by courier from the bank's life insurance offices in Southampton.

BNY Mellon Shareowner Services loses backup tape
March 2008 – BNY Mellon Shareowner Services "has notified about 3,500 individuals -- some of them Maryland residents -- that the company lost a box of computer data tapes last month storing personal information including names, Social Security numbers and possibly bank account numbers".

Ohio Plans To Encrypt After Data Breach
January 2008 – "After a backup tape containing sensitive information on 130,000 Ohio residents, current and former employees, and businesses was stolen from the car of a government intern in June, the state government just announced it plans to encrypt their backup data. It's estimated that the missing backup tape will cost Ohio $3 million. In September, the state docked a government official about a week of future vacation time for not ensuring that the data would be protected."

26 IRS Tapes Missing from Kansas City
January 2008 – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Kansas City officials are searching for lost agency computer tapes that may have been missing for as long as two months. City officials and the IRS did not provide details on the number of taxpayers affected or what personal information was on the tapes.

230 retailers affected by data breach after tape lost
January 2008 – A backup tape containing in-store credit card information on 650,000 retail customers is missing. GE Money USA, which manages in-store credit programs for many U.S. retailers, first realized that the tape was missing from an Iron Mountain Inc. storage facility in October. 

Dormitory Authority hunts missing backup tapes
December 2007 – Data tapes containing Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses for up to 800 current and former employees of the state Dormitory Authority are missing. Backup tapes are sent offsite, but a recent shipment envelope was found damaged and open and the tapes were not inside.

Theft of personal data more than triples this year
November 2007 – More than 162 million records have been reported lost or stolen in 2007, triple the 49.7 million that went missing in 2006, according to USA TODAY's analysis of data losses reported over the past two years.

West Virginia security breach affects 200,000 employees
October 2007 – West Virginia officials are alerting 200,000 past and current members of three health insurance programs that a computer tape containing full names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and marital status was lost while being shipped via United Parcel Service.

Hartford Financial misplaces back-up tapes with personal data on policy holders
October 2007 – The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has notified about 237,000 policy holders of a potential compromise of their personal data. The warning followed the loss of three backup tapes containing the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers of customers of the company's personnel lines claims center.

Reports of federal security breaches double in four months
October 2007 – Federal agencies report an average of 30 incidents a day in which Americans' personally identifiable information is exposed, double the number of incidents reported early this summer, according to the top information technology executive in the Bush administration.

Iron Mountain loses backup tapes containing student data
October 2007 – A driver for Iron Mountain Inc. lost backup tapes containing data on thousands of college students and their parents. The tapes belonged to the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance. The driver reportedly lost a container full of backup tapes containing data for every Louisiana application for federal student aid from 1998 through Sept. 13, 2007.

Sensitive patient data stolen from nursing building
September 2007 – 8,585 tapes were stolen from the School of Nursing. The tapes were used as backups for the school's computer database. They contained patient information like social security numbers and patient names and addresses. The tapes were "in a locked box, in a locked cabinet, in a locked room," University Hospital spokeswoman Kallie Michels said.

Girl Scout Mile High Backup Tapes Stolen Out of a Car
July 2007 – Tapes stolen from a car held personal information from a membership database, including names, addresses, phone numbers. A very limited number of credit card numbers and Social Security numbers were included in the stolen data from the camp and event registration database.

64,000 Ohio Workers Caught In Data Breach
June 2007 – A portable storage device containing personal information on 64,467 workers employed by the state of Ohio was stolen from an intern's car on June 10, according to a statement from the office of Governor Ted Strickland. The storage device contained names and Social Security numbers.

IBM contractor loses employee data
May 2007 – An unnamed IBM vendor has lost tapes containing sensitive information on IBM employees, the computer maker confirmed Tuesday.

Banks prepare lawsuit over TJX data breach
April 2007 – In a move that was widely expected, three New England banking associations and some individual banks announced they will sue TJX Companies Inc. over the data breach that exposed at least 45.7 million credit and debit card holders to identity fraud.

TJX data breach: At 45.6M card numbers, it's the biggest ever
March 2007 – After more than two months of refusing to reveal the size and scope of its data breach, TJX Companies Inc. is finally offering more details about the extent of the compromise.  

Chase Notifying Individuals About Improperly Discarded Tapes
September 2006 – Chase Card Services announced that it is notifying 2.6 million current and former Circuit City credit card account holders that computer tapes containing their personal information were mistakenly identified as trash and thrown out.

State workers warned about missing personal data
August 2006 - A computer tape containing the names, mailing addresses and Social Security numbers of 9,468 employees at the California Department of Mental Health cannot be located.

Cablevision: Employee Data Lost
July 2006 - A computer tape containing personal information of some of its current and former employees was lost in transit between two external vendors. Although Cablevision did not release how many employees were affected or what type of information was contained in the package, a person familiar with the matter said the computer tape included social security and 401(k) election information for about 13,700 current and former Cablevision employees.

Nelnet lost tapes containing data of 188,000 college students
July 2006 - Student lender Nelnet several tapes containing social security numbers and account information for approximately 188,000 college students. The tapes, sent through UPS, were reported missing.

State taxpayer data lost in mail
June 2006 - Public and private tax information for about 2,400 individuals and roughly 48,000 businesses throughout the state of Minnesota is missing. The information was on a data tape in a package that was lost after being mailed.

Personal data of NY transit employees lost
April 2006 - A company that stores records for the Long Island Railroad lost personal data including Social Security numbers for about 17,000 of the transit agency's current and former employees, apparently while the information was being delivered by a driver.

Providence Launches Outreach to Home Services Patients After Data Theft
January 2006 - Providence Home Services notified current and former patients following the theft of tapes and disks that hold confidential data. The theft involves the records of some 365,000 patients who received health care through Providence Home Services. The data were on computer backup disks and tapes in a case that was stolen from the car of a Providence employee.

Bank tape lost with data on 90,000 customers
January 2006 - A computer tape from a Connecticut bank containing personal data on 90,000 customers was lost in transit. The tape from People's Bank contained information such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers and checking account numbers. It was bound for the TransUnion LLC credit reporting bureau via UPS.

Marriott Discloses Missing Data Files
December 2005 - Marriott International Inc.'s time-share division lost backup computer tapes containing credit card account information and the Social Security numbers of about 206,000 time-share owners and customers, as well as employees of the company.

Mortgage company lost personal information for over 2 million customers
December 2005 - LaSalle Bank lost a backup tape containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other bits of information of over 2 million of their mortgage customers. The tape was eventually found after 4 weeks, but the company cannot guarantee that the tape didn't get into the wrong hands while it was missing.

Thousands of health records stolen from Palo Alto agency
September 2005 - backup tape containing the names, Social Security numbers and detailed health information of as many as 6,000 current and former clients of the Children's Health Council was stolen from the nonprofit agency's offices.

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