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Starbucks Loses Laptops With Private Employee Data

Written by Evan Schuman
November 3rd, 2006

Starbucks on Friday reported that it had lost track of four laptop computers, two of which had private information on about 60,000 current and former U.S. employees and fewer than 80 Canadian workers and contractors.

The data, which includes names, addresses and Social Security numbers, is about three years old, dating prior to December 2003. Starbucks has been looking for the laptops since early September after discovering they were missing from a closet in the corporate support center at its south Seattle headquarters, Starbucks said. The company waited several weeks to disclose it had lost the laptops, said Starbucks spokesperson Valerie O’Neil, because “we wanted to make sure we were thorough before we notified people.” A company statement added: “In accordance with Starbucks standards for information security, the laptops were password protected.”

Posted in IT Strategy/Industry, Security/Fraud
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