Deloitte has recently admitted it had lost a laptop containing pension details on hundreds of thousands of individuals. What is different though is that finally this laptop contained encrypted information, was password-protected and no misuse of the stored information has been discovered. While losing laptops is not something to take lightly, I am happy to report those having it won’t be able to easily access the stored information.

So what did the laptop contain? According to the Register, 150,000 railway workers’ details, details on all UK Vodafone staff with pensions and as well as records of other unnamed pension funds were stored on the said laptop. No addresses or bank information though. How it was stolen? From a handbag of a Deloitte employee. Vodafone Staffers, as well as the railway workers have received letters letting them know what has happened soon after the theft. We’re now looking forward to see where the “thorough investigation” takes Deloitte.

Lost hardware is the cause of another data loss that has affected 5000 employees of the National Offender Management Service in England and Wales. The hard drive containing the personal records of the employees, including prison staff, was lost by a private firm, EDS.

Although detail on EDS and the circumstances in which the hard drive was lost are not yet very clear, the BBC article announcing the breach is rich in statements from Secretary of State Jack Straw and a couple of justice minister, as well as critiques of the British government.

Justice Minister David Hanson is the one who most surprised me. He stated he did not believe the safety of those working in the Justice system would be threatened. No wonder the British government and authorities are hit so hard by data losses or thefts if they have no idea what to consequences are. Of course their safety, identity and money will be threatened, a justice minister who’s at the second data breach in a few weeks, after loosing private info on thousands of criminals, should at least know that and not be taken by surprise .

Do you remember the Bank of New York Mellon’s lost backup tapes? Initially, it was said they contained private records on 4.2 million customers. Yet according to new info from DarkReading, the count has just rose to 12 million.

“When we announced [the lost tapes] back in May, we said we were going to do a top to bottom review across the company and go back and review it again,” a Bank of New York Mellon spokesperson said. “When we discovered [there was] this additional data that may have non-public personal data on it, we brought in a third party” to help investigate it, the spokesperson said.

The unencrypted tapes were lost by a courier earlier this year and according to data released in May, those whose private data was stored on them where clients of BNY Mellon Shareholder Services. The newly discovered clients that have been affected by the breach are currently being notified by the bank.

Several computer backup tapes containing thousands of social security numbers of Tinley Park residents have been lost during a common moving procedure aimed to insure they wouldn’t be destroyed in a village hall disaster.

According to the Chicago Tribune, officials doubt there’s any real chance of identity theft, as the tapes contained 15 year old information. Village Manager Scott Niehaus said letters describing the incident will be sent out to about 19,000 residents and another 1,400 current, former or retired village employees.