By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
This is just the latest debacle in a continuing series of Company X (or even the government) loses Laptop Y and along with it xxx,xxx people’s information. The laptop, with information on over 380,000 retired AND current employees, was stolen from the employee’s car. The key was that the employee did not encrypt the data, which was against company policy.
We Say: First, I felt sorry for this guy, but then I thought … no, I shouldn’t. This continues to happen, over and over again, and unless there are consequences to people involved (and maybe even then), it will continue to happen.
And why the hell is Boeing allowing the data to be in someone’s laptop unencrypted? It is fully a top-down problem and the poor guy is a mere sacrifice lamb.
Actually, this same thing happened around Thanksgiving time LAST year and Boeing has spend the time wisely by forcing employees to take online training on safeguarding personal data and corporate data.
Boeing has also required users to install Connected Data Protector so all their data (on both laptops and desktops) is securely backed up to a server nightly so there’s no worry about losing any important data at all. It’s all safe on a server.
Boeing also requires users to install Encryption Plus Folders for anyone who has a need for any personal or corporate data on a laptop and they are required to put that data into the encrypted folders.
Next, all employees have been required to verify they installed all the required software protections AND that they have taken the required training AND that they are now complying with the new security rules.
All this has been done over the last year and every employee has been aware of these requirements for months now.
No, this person is NOT a sacrificial lamb at this point. This person willfully disregarded the rules and had plenty of time to comply with them so they deserve to get fired.
How do I know all this? I work at Boeing and had my personal information stolen with the first lost laptop last Thanksgiving.
You are right, Boeing should not allow that data to be on a laptop in the first place, but, if the user has an official need for it, they MUST follow the rules or risk termination and this is what happened.
Sacrificial lamb? No, not this time, I am afraid.
K
K, your response is well taken and I take back my previous comment.
No problem. *Unfortunately*, I know of what I speak.
The other day when we all found out about the new laptop loss, we all huddled outside a coworker’s cubicle and voiced our displeasure. Several people wrote to the CEO demanding to know what they were going to do about this (usually they won’t tell you what they do to discipline the offender) and sure enough, in a couple days, an e-mail was sent that assured us the employee was fired.
Didn’t change things but it did make several people feel better.