Stolen Agilent Laptop with Records of 51,000 Employees

There have been quite a few cases of stolen laptops that contained private records of hundreds, thousands and even hundreds of thousands of individuals. They’re increasing number and in some cases the consequences are a pretty strong argument when it comes to convincing other companies they need to secure their endpoints. But apparently, recognizing the risk and having a contract signed compelling another company to protect your data is not enough. At least it wasn’t in the case of Agilent Technologies.

A laptop containing sensitive and unencrypted personal data on 51,000 current and former employees of said company has been recently stolen from the car of an Agilent vendor from San Francisco. According to MercuryNews.com, the theft was announced by Agilent in a letter sent to former employees. The stolen data included employee names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and details of stock options and other stock-related awards.

In the letter, Agilent blamed the San Jose vendor, Stock & Option Solutions, for failing to scramble or otherwise safeguard the data - “in violation of the contracted agreement.”

“It wasn’t encrypted, which was a surprise to us,” said Agilent spokeswoman Amy Flores. She said the vendor told Agilent that an East Coast employee had brought the data-laden laptop to California for encryption, but someone broke into her car and stole the computer and her other belongings while the vehicle was parked near Fisherman’s Wharf.