Third strike for Boeing privacy

A Wall Street Journal story reveals yet another privacy breach at Boeing. Apparently they still haven't learned that unencrypted information on laptops is vulnerable.

A Boeing Co. laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 382,000 workers and retirees has been stolen, putting the employees at risk for identity theft and credit-card fraud. The theft was the third such offense in the past 13 months.

"It's very disturbing to us when things like this happen, and there are certain steps you can take right away ... but we realize we need to go above and beyond those," said Tim Neale, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing.

The laptop was stolen earlier this month when an employee left it unattended, Mr. Neale said. He wouldn't reveal where the theft happened, but said no proprietary, customer or supplier data was on the computer. Files on the computer also contained home addresses, phone numbers and birth dates. Some of the files listed salary information.

The employees affected by the theft, who are mostly retirees, haven't yet been notified. Mr. Neale said the company is waiting until it has an infrastructure in place to handle the onslaught of questions it will likely receive.

A Boeing laptop containing information on roughly 160,000 current and former employees was stolen in November 2005. Then, in April, a laptop containing information on 3,600 employees and retirees was stolen...