Towers Perrin data theft
p2pnet.net News:- Data on “tens of thousands of retirement-plan participants” at “multiple” companies have been stolen.
The information was on five Towers Perrin laptops stolen last month, “the latest in a string of thefts across industries raising concerns about privacy and identity theft,” says The Wall Street Journal.
The company says one of the things it excels at is “risk and financial management”.
It reported the laptops missing on December 7 and New York City police made an arrest on December 28, says the story, “but the computers haven’t been recovered, people familiar with the matter said.”
Also See:
The Wall Street Journal – Towers Perrin Laptops, Client Data Stolen, January 8, 2006
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January 9th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
This is exactly why it is such a bad idea that government agencies and corporations to hoard data of personal information, In most cases data collected without the persons knowledge that it will be collected or that a data bank will be maintained or even what they will do with the collected data. Even when being told, people often don’t have a clue why such data should be collected or what the ramifications are or might be.
Stories such as these pop up more and more today. Not so much because they are happening with any less frequency but because such notifications are becoming mandatory as people have their bank accounts cleaned out, their id’s stolen, their credit cards hijacked, and when it is investigated how this could be, almost invariably it leads back to hijacked data or scammers of some sort.
Both corporations and governments are big targets for hacking. They are also well known for not having tight security guarding that data. One of the most favorite ways to get into data banks is with a supervisor password. Often you can get those passwords, not by hacking and cracking but by guessing at the most known and most often used. Passwords such as god, 1234, me, or other such similar instances do not need cracking and password skills, it only needs a good guess or a program running that will run through the list and put in those common passwords. So much for your data security.
Homeland Security has for several years now racked up the very worse of annual grade reports for computer and data security. At the same time, the average citizen can’t access the data and find out what they might think, where errors are, or even send in corrections or dispute them. Still your potential employer can find out all about you from the same source, errors or no.
Corporations hoard the data, hoping to find buyers for the data or to use that data in some way for their own benefit.
You pay with a credit card, Joe Merchant has a record of it and what do you want to bet that it isn’t near as good of security as even the poorly guarded government databanks.
There’s a scam going on now in Canada that you can bet will spread worldwide within the next month. The scammers already know the main number of your card. All they need is the pin number or the last 3 numbers to use the card. Now where did they get all that info? No one says but it didn’t drop into their hands from out of thin air. So why don’t you know whose keeping your data and why?
*Second validation attempt
January 14th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I am an employee of one of the company’s employee information that resided on the stolen laptops in questions. What I want to know is if the laptops were stolen in January 2006, why was I not notified until January 2006 to the problem and what I should do to protect my credit. The notice I received indicated that authorities did not want to alert anyone as it would impede their investigation. What A bunch of crap! The laptops were reportedly stolen from Tower Perrin Offices in NY. My theory is that an employee took their laptop home, worked from their “home office,” and the laptop was probably stolen by one of their kids friends and sold for drugs of some other reason. To top it all off Tower Perrin is still providing services for my employer/employees and no one has been fired at either Towers Perrin or my employer. I want our CIO’s head on a platter!
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 pm
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I got a letter from Towers Perrin via my employer American Express today. They dropped the bombshell on me and offered me a free year of Equifax credit bureau monitoring as consolation for their data theft. Current as well as retired employees personal information was on the 5 laptops that were stolen from Towers Perrin. Bravo for Towers Perrin and American Express. See how much they care for their constituents. My mind is now at ease. I will know if I become a statistic for free in the coming year. I say class action suit !!!
January 24th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I also work for one of the companies whose plan was affected by these thefts. I agree with they comments about the delay in notifying us. Even our company HR group came up with excuses about “not” knowing why letters were being sent out by Towers Perrin.
This affects thousands of people and yet it’s pushed under the rug. Local media here has not covered it although all it takes is a quick internet search to bring up dozens of articles.
Towers Perrin needs to be held responsible, as do any other companies that stock pile personal data where it can be easily stolen.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Have you folks received letters that actually came from Towers Perrin? The letter we received seems to have come from Equifax, saying they’ve “recently learned” about the theft of the laptops.
January 24th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
The letter I received came from Towers Perrin on with their stationery header on the envelope. They also included an toll free number which some employees had to use because they tossed away the letters, thinking they were marketing mail.
This grows bigger by the minute. Many employees are upset that our company didn’t bother to notify us.
January 25th, 2007 at 12:23 am
My letter arrived to today from American Express. My concern is that 54 days have passed since this data theft and I am just now being advised that myt data is at risk. It would seem that there should be some type of legal recourse to this type if irresponsible action. Is there no protection for the consumer or accountablility by the corporations? Any one know the answer to this?
January 29th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
My letter arrived from my company On January 27th. According to one of the many stories on the net (Richmond Times Dispatch jan 12/07) the laptops ‘went missing’ in late November 2006. There was the 2 yr Equifax Gold credit monitoring etc…but the question is WHY are our companies handing SSN numbers to 3rd parties with laughable IT security???
February 1st, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I also received a letter from Towers Perrin on Jan.27,2007…I was totally surprised to find out they are handling our med.& pension benefits, all this years I thought my own HR company are directly in-charge of our benefit plans.
As soon as I received the letter, I immediately enrolled to the free equifax gold 3-in-1 monotoring of my credit files, and i called all my banks & credit cards companies to check if there are unusual activity on my accounts, and I requested them to put an extra password security on my accounts…
This is a big inconvenience on my part plus the emotional worry that comes with it. Our company should get rid of towers perrin and managed our own benefits instead…
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I work for American Express. The sad part is that Perrin Towers collects millions of dollars each year from American Express. They were also paid $1 million to tell American Express to get rid of our cash pension plan. Now I have to save 5% more in my 40lk if I want to retire with enough money at 65.
A benefit rep told me that Perrin had our data to tell them how much money they can save by cutting our pensions.
They should return some of their fees to pay for credit protection for life!
April 6th, 2007 at 7:21 am
My husband’s info was on a stolen laptop and starting in Feb 2007 someone has cashed a $2500 check using his info, tried, unsuccessfully, to cash a $7000 check and tried to open 2 accounst with Sears. I called TP and someone from the DA’s office was supposed to call us and so far – no call. Why was the info on a laptop harddrive anyway, and with no security!
June 19th, 2007 at 10:37 am
My data was stod last December I i just got notification June 2007. I worked for the great LIPTON/UNILEVER. DOES ANY PERSON KNOW WHAT OTHER PERSONNAL DATA WAS LISTED BECIDES SS AND NAME. I have contacted Towers but you wou7ld think the information belonged to them/