Privacy Digest

Neiman Marcus loses data on 160K employees - Security - MSNBC.com: "ALLAS - A computer stolen from a Neiman Marcus consultant contained personal information on nearly 160,000 current and former employees, the luxury retailer said Tuesday.

The company said there was no indication yet that the thieves had tapped into the personal information, which included individuals' names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates and salaries.

The stolen notebook computer belonged to a pension-benefits consulting firm hired by Neiman Marcus. It was taken April 5 from a technician hired by the consultant, according to a Neiman Marcus spokeswoman.

Ginger Reeder, the spokeswoman, said Neiman Marcus was told about the theft April 10 but was asked by police not to release information about it until this week while the case was investigated. She declined to say where or how the theft occurred, other than that it didn't occur in Dallas, where the retailer is based.

Reeder said other items were taken, leading the company to believe that the thieves weren't after information about the Neiman Marcus employees.

The consultant's policies called for computer files to be encrypted, but Neiman Marcus doesn't know whether that was done and is cautiously acting as if the data on the stolen machine wasn't protected, Reeder said.

In sheer numbers, the Neiman Marcus disclosure was dwarfed by other security lapses including 45 million credit and debit card accounts at TJX Cos., 40 million card accounts at CardSystems Solutions Inc., and Veterans Affairs data on nearly 27 million veterans. But privacy experts said it was still noteworthy.

'This is probably one of the most significant breaches of employee records by an American company,' said Mark Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a consumer advocacy group. 'For a single company to lose its entire employee history is serious.'

Rotenberg said it was particularly alarming that the loss involved Social Security numbers and dates of birth -- the currency used by identity thieves."

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