Fergie's Tech Blog

IBM Loses Retirees' Personal Info

An AP newswire article, via USA Today, reports that:

IBM, one of the world's leading providers of encryption and other data-management technologies, is in the uncomfortable position of trying to solve its own mystery involving missing computer tapes with sensitive information about employees and records of customer transactions.

An outside vendor was transporting the tapes from one IBM facility to another on Feb. 23 when the tapes fell out of a contractor's vehicle in Westchester County, N.Y., not far from IBM headquarters in Armonk. IBM representatives went to the scene and couldn't find the tapes, spokesman Fred McNeese said Tuesday.

The incident surfaced in recent weeks when IBM's human-resources department wrote to affected workers — primarily former employees — to inform them. The letter said the tapes held archival information "such as your Social Security number, your dates of employment with IBM, birth date, contact information such as your address, and your IBM work history."

IBM also advertised in a local newspaper to ask for the return of the tapes.

posted by Fergie @ 5/15/2007 05:46:00 PM