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Filched Boeing laptop threatens 382,000 employees' IDs
Third incident in 13 months...

By Dawn Kawamoto

Published: Friday 15 December 2006

Boeing has confirmed that a laptop stolen from an employee's car contained sensitive information on 382,000 workers and retirees.

It is third such incident at the aircraft giant in the past 13 months. The laptop contained names, home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth for current and former Boeing employees, company spokesman Tim Neale said. The theft potentially puts the individuals at risk for identity theft.

Despite the large number of people affected by the theft, Neale said Boeing has received no reports of the sensitive information being compromised.

Neale said: "We have no evidence that Boeing was targeted by an individual or a group, so maybe the laptop was stolen just for the value of the laptop."

He added that the notebook was turned off at the time it was stolen and requires a password to access the data.

Boeing, meanwhile, is still in the process of notifying those individuals whose information was on the laptop. It is providing them with up to three years of free credit monitoring.

"Even before the first incident, the company had security procedures and policies that called for them to work off of the server behind the firewall," Neale said. "But after the November theft, we asked for everyone to review our policy and remove information off their hard drives and work off the server. We even had managers go around to double check that that had happened."

By Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com.