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.

8 Backup Tapes Stolen from Employee Affecting 80,000 NYPD
March 2009 – An employee of the New York Police Department's pension fund stole 8 backup tapes containing the social security number and direct deposit account numbers for over 8,000 current and retired police officers.

Information Vaulting Services loses backup tape affecting 807,000 people
February 2009 – An information vaulting company responsible for protecting backup tape loses tape affecting over 807,000 people who have had criminal background checks over the last 12 years. The tape belonged to the Arkansas Department of Information Systems.

Medical Records of Over 8,000 Missing
January 2009 – A computer tape in route from Northern Ireland to England with medical records of more than 8,000 patients disappeared. Sources claim only a specialist can read the lost tape.

Auto Dealership Breach Affects Thousands
December 2008 – A data breach at the Bill Dube Ford/Toyota dealership was reported in which computer data tapes were stolen. The stolen data included the personal information from thousands of people in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

IT exec accused of $10m backup tape theft
December 2008 – IT executive is accused of taking a computer backup tape containing personal information of 3.2 million customers that could net as much as $10m on the black market, according to court records.

Stolen Disk Contained Calif. Appellate Lawyers’ Social Security Numbers
December 2008 – Lawyers have been notified that their Social Security numbers and personal information on a backup disk was stolen.

Two Computer Back Up Tapes Stolen
November 2008 – Two computer backup tapes with personal information on patients in the Christus Health Care system was stolen in Houston.

Harvard Law Backup Tape Lost in Transit
November 2008 – Harvard Law School is notifying thousands of clients that their Social Security numbers, addresses, and financial information located on a backup tape was lost in September.

Dormitory Authority loses five backup tapes
September 2008 – The Domitory Authority lost five backup tapes containing personal information on current and past employees. 

Backup Tape Containing Personal Information On Over 20,000 People Lost
July 2008 – A box of computer tapes containing sensitive information on Tinley Park residents vanished and has since been found. 

Backup Tape With Private Details Stolen From Greensboro Gynecology Associates
July 2008 – A backup tape containing patient information including Social Security numbers and addresses was stolen from an employee who was taking the tape offsite.

Stolen tape puts Bristol-Myers employee data at risk
July 2008 – A backup tape with personal data of current and former employees and their dependents was stolen from a delivery truck transporting the device.

Utah hospital billing records from over 2 million patients stolen
June 2008 – Backup tapes containing billing records of 2.2 million patients at the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics were stolen from a vehicle after a courier failed to immediately take them to a storage center, authorities said Tuesday.

Stolen backup tapes compromise confidential data for thousands
June 2008 – Confidential tapes containing the personal and medical details of thousands of staff was stolen. The tapes contained highly sensitive information including details ranging from illnesses to home addresses. Thieves targeted a security van while it was transporting the tapes between offices to be backed up.

Backup tape containing 38,000 confidential patient health records lost
May 2008 – Confidential health records of more than 38,000 patients of the Isle of Wight's Sandown Health Centre have gone missing after a computer back-up tape was lost by a courier firm.

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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