NEW YORK – General Electric Co. said a company laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 50,000 current and former employees was stolen in early September from a locked hotel room.
The Fairfield, Conn.-based company began mailing letters this week to the people whose names and Social Security numbers were on the laptop to notify them of the breach and offer a year’s free access to a credit-monitoring service, GE spokesman Russell Wilkerson told Computer World.
Wilkerson declined to give further details such as where and when the theft took place or whether the company official is still with GE.
Nonetheless, he said, evidence suggested the thief was after the computer, not the data on it. Wilkerson also said there is no sign that the information had been used improperly.
The loss of the data, including employees’ names and Social Security numbers, raises the specter that the information could be used in identity theft schemes, in which criminals apply for credit cards and other services under stolen names.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs came under fire in the spring after a laptop containing data on 26 million military veterans and service members was stolen from a staffer’s home.
In the past year, major U.S. companies that have reported the loss of computer equipment containing data on employees and customers have included aircraft maker The Boeing Co., financial services company Ameriprise Financial Inc. and a U.S. mortgage firm owned by Dutch bank ABN AMRO Holding NV.
