NetwX0
join:2007-01-02
Medicine Hat | Stolen Laptop and Liability? I had my laptop stolen yesterday. On this laptop were SQL backups. In these backups there was of course 10,000 or so customers names, address' etc. Also among these records are 2276 bank accounts used to take automatic debit.
My boss has brushed it off as the banks problem after talking to a retired bank manager.
Since it was my laptop that was stolen would I end up being liable if anything happened?
This is also in Canada. Any advice would be great as I am leary of what my boss has said. |
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| How about contacting every single one of the customers whose names and bank account/credit card data was compromised ASAP, before thinking about covering your own ass????????? |
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NetwX0
join:2007-01-02
Medicine Hat | Thats what I mean. He is saying it is not important right now. I really don't know what to do about this, nor does the police service here.  |
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| said by NetwX0:Thats what I mean. He is saying it is not important right now. I really don't know what to do about this, nor does the police service here. Your boss is an irresponsible azzhole! Are you? He is opening himself to real liability by not reporting this incident. What alternative is there to notifying all these compromised customers, or, at least, THEIR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, of the breach of your companies security, and the possible consequent damages, resulting from the theft of your laptop? Done discreetly, with the cooperation of the financial institutions, your customers could have their account numbers changed without any revelation as to why, other than as a security measure instigated by their financial institution.
If your boss thinks that the flap from reporting, and taking action to mitigate any possible damages due to, the incident would be damaging to the company, remind him of the consequences not doing so would have. I don't know your customers, but if I was one of them, I'd be pretty damned pissed off if my accounts were cleaned out, and it could have been prevented through timely notification to me, regardless of whether or not, in the long run, the financial institutions picked up the tab. The interim impact on my finances would be devastating, and wholly avoidable had I been warned in time to prevent any such loss. |
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 SkiJunkieNever mind dog, beware of the ownerPremium
join:2004-05-31
Canada...... | Yes, you would be held liable if you just sit quietly and don't do anything about it.
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 PhoenixDown-- Wants FIOSPremium
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY
kudos:1 | reply to NetwX0
How large of a company do you work for? Is there anyone else you can go to about this problem? I would suggest the legal department if you have one.
The other question is why are you carrying around such sensitive information on your laptop?
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Mass Transit Sucks! |
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Is there a password on your laptop?
Are the backup's password protected in any way?
If they are I don't see how you are liable if you were not negligent. At least thats what the law would want to know in the United States.
Contacting 10000 customers would be a tremendous undertaking that is bound to cost your company a lot of money as well as waiver confidence in the company with those 10000 customers.
BTW
Was it stolen or did you lose it? Was it stolen from you directly or was it stolen from your possession (home, car, office, etc...)?
As long as you took reasonable measures to protect the data I don't see as how you will be held liable. Especially if the clients don't know what happened. It is not like some bank defrauder is going to call them up and say, "your bank fraud experience was courtesy of NetwX and the laptop I stole from him. Have a nice day."
peace,
dumwaldo |
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 nightshade74Yet another genxerPremium
join:2004-11-06
Prattville, AL
 ·Charter
 ·voip.ms
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said by PhoenixDown:The other question is why are you carrying around such sensitive information on your laptop? The other other question is why are you carrying around such sensitive information on your laptop without industrial grade encryption ala TrueCrypt? |
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 Michieru2zzz zzz zzzPremium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | No...Why does that laptop even contain that information in the FIRST place.
This is why companies do not allow employees to bring their own personal equipment. Nor do they allow employees to leave with any equipment or data.
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The only limits we have are the one's we set ourselves. |
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nightshade74Yet another genxerPremium
join:2004-11-06
Prattville, AL Reviews:
·Charter
·voip.ms
| said by Michieru2:This is why companies do not allow employees to bring their own personal equipment. Nor do they allow employees to leave with any equipment or data.  yeah lets turn off the USB ports put a wall around
the data and never let them take it off site. After all
no one has a mobile sales force. No one would ever need
to do a report in a building without internet access and
have live data. |
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